The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help justice to be done using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with top-level professionals, groundbreaking research, and Val McDermid's own experience to lay bare the secrets of this fascinating science. Along the way, she wonders how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine the time of death, how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer, and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist uncovered the victims of a genocide. In her novels, McDermid has been solving complex crimes and confronting unimaginable evil.