The memoir of a forensic scientist and criminal investigator
The compelling memoir of a leading forensic scientist and criminal investigator.

'ASTONISHING AND ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING' - LYNDA LA PLANTE

'Engrossing, emotionally honest and forensically fascinating' - Dr Richard Shepherd, author of Unnatural Causes

EVERY BODY LEAVES A MARK

In Traces, Professor Patricia Wiltshire will take you on a journey through the fascinating edgeland where nature and crime are intertwined. She'll take you searching for bodies of loved ones - through woodlands and plantations, along hedgerows and field-edges, from ditches to living rooms - solving time since death and how remains were disposed of. She will show you how pollen from a jacket led to a confession and how two pairs of trainers, a car and a garden fork led to the location of a murdered girl. She will give you glimpses of her own history: her loves, her losses, and the narrow little valley in Wales where she first woke up to the wonders of the natural world.

From flowers, fungi, tree trunks to walking boots, carpets and corpses' hair, Traces is a fascinating and unique book on life, death, and one's indelible link with nature.