Reference Reviews

Doug’s Student Reference Room

Fingerprints and Impression Evidence. Jenny MacKay. 104 p. Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books. ISBN 13: 978-1-42050-037-0; ISBN 10: 1-4205-0037-6. $32.45.

Fingerprints and Impression Evidence As with other titles in the Crime Scene Investigations series, this title opens with a story that raises our curiosity about the subject. Here a store owner’s fingerprints are detected on a draft of a ransom note that was torn up and discarded behind the store. A fingerprint specialist was able to prove from the evidence not only that the fingerprints were the store owner’s, but that the store owner was the one who tore up the paper. This evidence helped lead to the conviction of this man for the abduction and murder of a local housewife. After this introduction establishes the importance of fingerprint and impression evidence, the first chapter explains the anatomy of fingerprints and why they are unique identifiers, and offers a brief history of the science of fingerprinting. The next chapters explore a wide range of techniques employed in detecting, collecting and preserving fingerprints, and subsequently the ways those prints are used to identify suspects. A fascinating discussion on other imprint evidence—tire tracks, shoes, bite marks and even dust—is followed by a chapter on future technologies in this field. The attractive graphics, color photos and sidebars will add to young readers’ enjoyment of this text, recommended for school and public libraries for pleasure reading or research in grades six through nine.
—Doug Achterman