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Science Spotlight: Crime Fighting by Ian Graham, Evans, pp 48, £8.95

What a fantastic book this is. Its target age range of 9 to 13-year-olds is far too narrow: everyone will want to read this one. Crime Fighting explains the work of the forensic scientist. As Ian Graham says: ‘The smallest trace of evidence at the scene of a crime can help the forensic detectives in their behind the scenes search for the criminal.’ He shows the science and technology that lies behind the tests, techniques and equipment used to investigate all kinds of clues, from fibres and fingerprints to firearms and documents.’

That there is a keen market for this book, I do not doubt. Whether it’s Inspector Morse or Miss Marple – it seems that every-one is at it these days, trying to solve crime, puzzling over the latest whodunit. With this book, children now have the chance to understand how the real forensic scientists do just that.

It is not often that you find a book where it is so obvious that care, attention and consideration has been made to all aspects of the book: text, illustrations, presentation and general readability. The text is extremely well-researched and presented in an interesting and manageable way. The chapters are a suitable length with eye-catching headings and concise introductions. Whether it’s explaining the intricacies of genetic fingerprinting ‘used by the police and forensic scientists as a way of linking suspected criminals with their crimes’ or exploring the techniques of entomologists who help to estimate the date a crime took place by studying the activity of insects in and around a corpse, the text is at all times uncomplicated and easy to follow.

Important discoveries and their inventors, such as the rhesus factor in blood, discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1900 and the test used to re-examine written records to see if they have been tampered with, are highlighted in ‘History Spotlights’ in each chapter. The clear diagrams and the magnificent colour photographs all play their part in making this remarkable book so inviting and appealing. Each of its 45 pages, including glossary and index, is packed with information. Priced at £8.95, I certainly don’t think you could question its value for money. So, whether you are going to buy Crime Fighting for an interested older junior child, a class of children, a school library, or for the book shelf at home, I’d hurry up and do so if I were you before they’re all sold out.

Alison Goodman teaches at Thornhill Primary School, London.