I LOVE reading about forensic science.

I have devoured books on pathologists, crime scene investigation and profilers. I truly and honestly enjoyed this book so much, and if you are like me and interested in true crime, you will love this too!

This is an account of the experiences of husband and wife team Derek and Pauline Tremain as a forensic medical scientist and a medical secretary at Guy’s Hospital in London.

The book is part memoir and part textbook, and the memoirs of the authors give a good insight into the real world of forensic pathology.

There are some fascinating sections describing different forensic procedures, including paternity tests (and the need to keep involved parties firmly apart whilst awaiting the results...) and types of drowning. There are also some amusing anecdotes of the mischievous antics of the pathologists in the lab, which humanise the often depressing aspects of life in forensic science.

The title is quite misleading, and rather than the book taking the reader through the specifics of a single murder, there are many anonymous cases of both murder and suicide analysed and explained. I did expect a bit more drama, and sometimes the interweaving of the authors’ voices was a little confusing.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review..

I thought this book would be better than it is. The authors obviously know their subject inside out, but I have to say I found it less interesting reading than it probably was writing it. Sorry, not for me.

This is a very interesting memoir. It was fascinating to learn how Derek and Pauline got into forensic medicine. I would have preferred there to have been more information about the cases they have worked on, and less information about their lives. It is still a good and insightful read.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

I love TV shows like CSI and true crime documentaries so this book stood out as one that I may enjoy.

The book is written by a husband and wife team who both worked in forensic medicine in two very different roles.

I found the book a very interesting peek behind the curtains as to what happens behind the scenes in real life, including the games and hijinks that would be played by the staff!

I feel that sometimes it wasn’t very obvious as to who was writing a certain paragraph until you had read a bit of it and it may have helped to have had Derek or Pauline as a heading to make it clearer from the start who was telling the particular story, however this was a fascinating insight into the real world of forensic medicine, guts and all.

The most interesting biography that I have every read. Derek and Pauline Tremain are not only superb forensic pathologists but also superb raconteurs. I found it almost impossible to put this book down and read long into the night. They give a most fascinating and, at times, gory insight into the world of murder and unforeseen deaths and have made me wish that I had done much better in science subjects whilst at school as it is a profession that I now dearly wish I could have followed.. Whilst covering a very serious subject the authors are still very down to earth and lovers of life as can be gleaned from the many amusing anecdotes that will leave the reader chuckling.

How To Solve A Murder by Derek and Pauline Tremain isn't quite what it suggests. While the book does tell of murders that top Forensic Scientist Derek Tremain has helped to solve and details a lot of the methods used to discover what lies behind the injuries of crime victims, much of it is autobiographical and the story of goings on at Guy's Hospital totally unconnected with crime detection.
That said it is an entertaining and often fascinating read and Derek is a very clever man indeed who has achieved a lot in his career. Definitely not a book for the squeamish or to read while eating as there are some quite explicit descriptions of methods used in autopsies and various aspects of work in the forensics lab that many will find quite disturbing.

Pauline plays a lesser part in the story, I did wonder for most of the book why her part merited more than a paragraph or so until near the end when she tells of becoming a partner in their business. At one part of the book the couple tell their stories alternately and it can become very confusing as to who is speaking, one part in particular where it seemed that Derek had raised eyebrows amongst senior colleagues by exposing his racy underwear while wearing a very short skirt and heels. I'm not being judgemental ,you wear what you like to work Derek but it take me a couple of seconds to realise that the "wardrobe malfunction " story belonged to Pauline.

I did really enjoy the book but felt the title a bit misleading, which might disappoint some readers expecting a full on True Crime book. It's entertaining,informative, more than a bit stomach-churning and well-written but it's not quite "What's written on the tin". Once I'd got into it that wasn't a problem for me,it might be for others.

This is a fantastic book. It takes a look into forensic science and how its used to solve crimes/figure out the cause of death.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook to review via Netgalley.

I enjoyed this book and liked the unique perspective that came from a husband and wife being involved in the same, unusual, field of work. However, having read a number of medical and forensic memoirs, I didn't learn anything new.

How to Solve a Murder as a title gives a distinct impression that this is what the majority of the book is about. In truth, it's in the main about one man's career, that involves taking bodies apart for analysis but not always in the name of murder. There is also a shift later in his career and again this new role is partly used for helping solve murders but also in part for solving other crimes where the victim is still alive.

It was interesting to hear what went on inside those walls and the techniques that he helped to bring on board. I didn't find any of it particularly gruesome although I do wonder how the families of the victims would view knowing their relatives were reduced down to bones in order to best understand what had happened to them.

My main issues with this book were the inclusion of the wifes story - lots of talk about how she would wear the latest fashion etc and I never felt like she actually acoomplished much. The other was the drift from one individual talking to another. At times it was hard to work out which of them was telling the next bit of the story, especially as her carerr evolved. I think I did work out that really this was about 80/20 split his story/her story. Lastly, I still have issues with the title. I think a lot of people like me, would perhaps expect to read more details about the verious crimes either before they got to the mortuary or after but these were tied up with pretty much one or two lines. And a lot of the book wasn't about murder cases.

I still think it's an interesting book but I would look to give it a different title if I was the publishers. It's effectively a story of a couple who work together around dead bodies - Something like Our Life with the Dead might have been more of an accurate title.

I really enjoyed this, I think i thought it was going to be more about the bodies that they saw in everyday life at the morgue but I felt like it talked about them as individuals a lot more and I wasn’t as intrigued by this. I did enjoy the chapters when it talk about investigations on how a person had died and the photos at the end were highly intriguing. All in all a good book, just don’t expect it to be as descriptive as unnatural causes as I thought it was going to be. I would rate it 4 stars though

wow, what a career these two have had, this book is a fascinating read into the lives of two forensic scientist. They tell us how the body is the answer to how the person died, somewhat gruesome but mostly fascinating. As married couple who started in a time where they didn't have computers to her solve anything, they show the real life and painstakingly slow ways in which they helped solves murders

A fascinating look behind the doors of the forensic scientist and the intuitive methods employed to determine method and cause of death.

The best parts of this book were the analysis of different deaths and techniques used. It's often through sheer will, determination and a lot of hard work that results in a breakthrough in unexplained deaths, and I enjoyed seeing how this work came together to get the desired results. The ingenuity was facinating. The book also draws on the terrible scenes and the worst of humanity pathologists and forensic staff see on a daily basis and how this can lead to PTSD and desensitizing horrific events. The subject matter is handled well in this instance, and on a professional level I could relate to a lot that was being said.

I did sometimes get the two authors confused, as their narrative overlapped and sounded quite similar. I also wasn't that interested in the more biographical parts of the book. I didn't want to read about fashion, I wanted the science. It also grated on me that they mention (albeit very briefly, in parallels to another case they work on) the James Bulger case and actually refer to James by the wrong name. He was never known by his family as 'Jamie', and a quick Google search would have shown this. I'm hoping this will be corrected in the final copy, as I read an ARC.

Collectively this was facinating, and I really liked the more scientific chapters. However, it sometimes strayed too much into personal stories and I found myself not as engaged through these parts. Still an insightful read for those interested in the forensic sciences.

Pauline and Derek Tremain are a married couple who have forged their careers in forensic science, in latter years working together on body mapping.
There are some fascinating insights into how the dead body tells a story that can be painstakingly analysed.
But this is also a memoir of two careers that started in very different times before computers,when body parts bobbed around in buckets, for the unsuspecting Pauline to find in the mortuary!
This autobiographical component can sometimes feel a bit unnecessary - the forensics are really the most interesting part. And the two voices did get a bit muddled in the kindle version.
However, I found it an interesting read and a welcome addition to this cannon.

This is a fascinating story of a married couple's individual (and eventually merging) careers in forensic science. It is not really information on 'how to solve a murder', so if you are expecting tales of hunting down serial killers, you may be disappointed, though certainly lots of crimes are resolved along the way.

The book is more anecdotal, beginning with Derek starting work at 15 (!) in a medical museum, which takes him down a path of becoming a scientist, an expert on drowning analysis, wound pattern matching and body mapping. Pauline starts off as a medical secretary and does spend a bit of time telling us about her short skirts and heels as well as the forensic cases she takes note on.

But it's interesting, and it's real life during a period where computing was at its infancy - imagine being at the forefront of all that technology at the time! The Tremains were instrumental in creating evidence databases and evolving digital/graphical body mapping. They also share a lot of experiences where their work helped secure a case against murderers/criminals. It wasn't 100% the book I was expecting, but I'm glad I read it all the same.

How To Solve A Murder was an interesting mixture of anecdotes and career experiences of Pauline and Derek Tremaine. Derek a Chief Forensic Medical Scientist and Pauline a Forensic Secretary. We get to learn there are two types of drowning Dry Drowning and Wet Drowning and the methods to determine whether the former or the latter. I thought there was a third type, Secondary Drowning but maybe that has a different medical name. As part of his job Derek had to perform paternity tests using blood samples. Apparently one man turned up claiming the child couldn't possibly be his because he had a vasectomy but a match between the child's blood and his, proved categorically he was the father. I was surprised at this because I thought blood tests were only accurate in disproving paternity. Anyway, it turned out the man's vasectomy hadn't been effective. There are many and various tales in this book to keep you amused, especially necessary when the less savoury ones are described in nauseating detail.

That title is a misnomer. This book is nothing to do with solving any particular murder and is, in fact, an academic and autobiographical account of the careers of two of London's most prominent forensic scientists. It's an academic manual about the inner workings of pathology and scientific examination at a central London forensic science lab. Based at Guys Hospital, the forensic dept has an illustrious and historical connection with some of the capital's most infamously notorious criminal cases. This is an entertaining and fascinating account no doubt, but, unless you're familiar personally with these scientific luminaries or have academic knowledge of criminology, it's trite and can become a boring read. As memoirs go, I'm sure this will be looked upon in a hundred years by junior pathology students as a handbook at the start of their careers. However, for an account of True Crime, police procedurals, or a look at London's historical criminal cases, you would be best trying a different book.

I really enjoyed this it is a fascinating account of jobs within forensic science. I was particularly interested in the secretarial role played in the forensic investigation. There is enough about the authors to get to know them and appreciate their work, but also not too much where it becomes too autobiographical. The cases discussed are interesting and different from the usual and suits the lay reader. Excellent photos and explanations given throughout. A must read for those interested in forensic science.

Part memoir, part look at the development of some aspects of forensic science in criminal cases this is an interesting read. Husband and wife authors Derek and Pauline Tremain both started their careers in forensic medical science around Guy’s Hospital. Pauline as a PA taking dictation from forensic pathologists in the room as their analysis happens, and Derek as a 15-year-old museum technician. Their interest in the work and commitment to working hard and developing their skills has led to a fascinating career.

The book is reminiscent of the insights into daily working life seen in a flood of books following in the wake of Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt. With the different approach that different chapters are written from either Derek or Pauline’s perspectives giving insight into different parts of the organisation.

The day to day stories in How to Solve a Murder are interesting and sometimes amusing, but feel quite surface level. There are vague references to tensions in the working environment on latter years at St Guy’s, but no sense of what this means. This stops it short of being a really engaging memoir.

The bits that really drew me in were Derek’s more detailed chapter on developing weapon/injury overlay - if you’ve watched the fictional forensic detective shows such as Bones or CSI this will be familiar territory. How the lab matches the weapon with the injury, allowing for height of perpetrator to victim, angle of entry, force etc. The development of this and Derek’s involvement in cases demonstrating the value are really interesting and to be honest a book entirely on this would have been a much better prospect.

If you’re fascinated by forensics and want to read something which is at an appropriate level for laypeople this has much to offer. I think it’s been diluted by trying to be the stories of two people who only have small overlaps in the actual work they do until the latter years where they worked together on body mapping in the private sector.

I'm a huge fan of crime novels and have always been interested in the truth behind the fiction! This seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out a bit more about forensic investigation from people who have spent their careers in the field - thanks to NetGalley for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I'd already read the book 'Unnatural Causes' by Dr Richard Shepherd (who worked with the Tremains and who wrote the foreword for this book). I was hoping for more of the same - an insight into the cases that shaped a fascinating career choice. This book is much more about the forensic techniques than the actual cases, but it was still interesting.

The book mainly covers Derek Tremain's career from a 15 year-old student technician at Gordon Museum (a museum of medical specimens) to working in Guy's Hospital's forensics department to setting up his own company dealing in body mapping of wounds for legal trials. It's an interesting story, gruesome at times, and gives a lot of information about tests for various conditions carried out post-mortem. There's some humorous anecdotes amid the gory details - Pauline's coffee-making story being a very odd but funny moment!

Most of the story is told by Derek, but there are sections narrated by Pauline too - she worked at the forensics department in a secretarial role that took her way beyond the regular job. Indeed, she tells of crime scenes and mortuary visits which are interesting. However, it is difficult to tell from the layout of the book who is 'speaking' as the electronic version doesn't make it clear and the perspective changes from Derek to Pauline between paragraphs sometimes.

Overall, this is an engaging read for those interested in forensics. It is perhaps a little too detailed in terms of testing procedures at times - I'd like to hear more about the cases that the Tremains worked on - but I enjoyed this and read it in a day.