On Death's Bloody Trail: Murder and the Art of Forensic Science

British crime writer Marriner here provides an engaging study of crime-solving methods. He opens with background material on techniques developed by sleuths such as Allan Pinkerton, who founded the famed Pinkerton detective agency in the U.S. in 1850, and Frederick Punter Wesley, who joined Scotland Yard in 1888 and became its ``first great detective.'' Then he examines cases solved through forensic techniques: blood tracing, ballistics, fingerprint analysis, the identification of mutilated or decomposed corpses, and DNA sampling. Marriner also recalls notorious cases, such as the murders committed by Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy, and devotes a chapter to sex killers. In his introduction, Colin Wilson suggests that this volume is ``a definitive text in forsenic medicine.'' But crime-solving techniques advance so rapidly that the book is more likely to intrigue the general reader than the crime specialist. (Mar.)