Forensic Books for High School Students
Patti Nolan Bertino 1.27.13
www.BertinoForensics.com
There are many great non-fiction forensics books that are of high interest to students.
This is just a very small list. As part of my forensics class, I often read excerpts from the
following books. After hearing sections of these books, many students become motivated to read
the rest of the book.
A suggestion for teachers: As you read books, articles, blogs record the topic and page number
in the back of the book or article so that when you want to find that passage again next year, you
can easily locate the reference in the back of the book ex. pg 56 Bones: male vs. female. Add a
stick-on note to that page with the topic on the note.
Forensic Books List
Green Highlights: Indicate easy reading level, very interesting books for students.
High School Forensic Textbook
Bertino, Anthony, Forensic Science: Fundamentals and Investigations
(Our high school textbook)
Blood
MacDonell, Herbert Leon, Bloodstain Patterns Second revised Edition
Bones (Forensic Anthropology)
Hansen, Joyce and McGowan, Gary, Breaking Ground Breaking Silence
(Story of NY African Burial Ground)
Massie, Robert K., The Romanovs The Final Chapter
Maples, William, Dead Men Do Tell Tales
Thomas, Peggy, Forensic Anthropology The Growing Science of Talking Bones
Walker, Sally, Written in Bone in Bone (forensic anthropology, story of lives of
colonial Jamestown and Maryland)
Walker, Sally, and Owsley, Douglas W.
Their Skeletons Speak Kennewick Man and the Paleoamerican World
Ubelaker, Dr. Douglas and Scamell, Henry, Bones
Case Studies
Craig, Emily Ph.D, Teasing Secrets From the Dead: My investigations at America's
Most Infamous Crime Scenes
Baden, Michael Unnatural Death Confessions of a Medical Examiner
Baden, Michael and Roach, Marion, Dead Reckoning
Hallcox, Jarrett, and Welch, Amy, Bodies We've Buried
(describes CSI training academy training)
Platt, Richard, The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the
World’s Most Baffling Crimes
DNA
Massie, Robert K. The Romanovs: The Final Chapter
Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, and Cotton, Ronald, Picking Cotton
(wrongful conviction later exonerated by DNA)
Wambaugh, Joseph The Blooding (First case solved through DNA......note it was rape
case, not for younger readers)
Entomology (Insects)
Erzinclioglu, Dr. Zacaria, Maggots Murder and Men
Goff, M. Lee, A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes
Time of Death
Bass, Dr. Bill, Death's Acre (Body Farm)
Sachs. Jessica Snyder,
Corpse nature, Forensics and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death
View our four forensic webinars, visit our website at www.BertinoForensics.com
Patti Nolan Bertino
nolanp@nycap.rr.com
www.BertinoForensics.com