Skip to main content

Traces - Review

 

Synopsis:
In Traces, Professor Patricia Wiltshire will take you on a journey through the fascinating edgeland where nature and crime are intertwined. 

She'll take you searching for bodies of loved ones - through woodlands, along hedgerows, field-edges, and through plantations - solving time since death, and disposal of remains, from ditches to living rooms. She will give you glimpses of her own history: her loves, her losses, and the narrow little valley in Wales where she first woke up to the wonders of the natural world. Pat will show you how her work with a microscope reveals tell-tale traces of the world around us, and how these have taken suspects of the darkest criminal activities to court.

From flowers, fungi, tree trunks to car pedals, walking boots, carpets, and corpses' hair, Traces is a fascinating, unique, and utterly compelling book on life, death, and one's indelible link with nature.

Review:

Unfortunately I found this book incredibly boring - too much pollen and not enough emotion. I found myself skimming through the words to find anything of interest.

One of the main issues is that Wiltshire is too detached from the stories for you to have any interest in them yourself, they are simply viewed as nothing more than bodies teeming with spores. The book is also very repetitive and Wiltshire frequently comes across as arrogant and judgemental to today’ generation, and this doesn’t help you to get into the book.

The novel itself is a jumbled mix of fairly dull stories interspersed with tales from the author’s life that never seem to lead anywhere or get at anything meaningful. There were a few interesting bits of information but nothing that made dragging myself through this book for five days worth it. If if a little more time had been spent trying to link a constant thread through this book then it may have read a lot better.

Traces may be informative for someone interested in how pollen is involved in crime scenes, but unfortunately it was just not for me, which was disappointing as I love forensic science, I just didn’t expect it to be so centred around pollen and spores.

Rating: 3/10


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Babylonian Empire review

  Synopsis: The Babylonians were indisputably a formidable force in the ancient world’s stage, but how did they rise to power three separate times in Middle Eastern history? What led to their cataclysmic falls? And why did everyone keep stealing their chief god Marduk? Dive into the riveting stories of the remarkable Babylonians, who transformed the Middle East and left an enduring legacy. Thoroughly researched, engaging, and easy to read, this book will guide you through the fascinating history of a civilization that has left an indelible mark on our world. My review: A very thorough review of the Babylonian empire, includes some interesting facts and stories yet unfortunately was a little bit confusing and uninspiring. I felt that some parts of the book could have been written in a more clear manner. However, lots of good images and diagrams which helped to tell the history of this ancient kingdom. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Babylonian culture and innovation - i di...

The Watchers - review

  Synopsis: You can't see them. But they can see you.  This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams. Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time. Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers and why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned, keen to watch their every move? My Review: A brilliant debut novel with an eerie, dark atmosphere, filled with tension and a twisty story.  I loved how the story focused on only a handful of characters which meant that each one...

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs - Review

    Synopsis - ‘66 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. Today a new generation of dinosaur hunters, armed with cutting edge technology, is piecing together the complete story of how the dinosaurs created a hugely successful empire that lasted for around 150 million years. In this hugely ambitious and engrossing story of how dinosaurs rose to dominate the planet, using the fossil clues that have been gathered using state of the art technology, Steve Brusatte, one of the world’s leading paleontologists, follows these magnificent creatures from the Early Triassic period at the start of their evolution, through the Jurassic period to their final days in the Cretaceous' and the legacy that they left behind.’ Review - This book is a brilliant insight into a whole new prehistoric world, filled to the brim with incredible facts and photos and written by an expert in the field. What I really love about this book is that it gives dinosaurs the limelight...