
The Science of Murder
The Forensics of Agatha Christie
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Narrated by:
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Helen Langford
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By:
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Carla Valentine
About this listen
Discover the science of forensics through Agatha Christie's novels
Agatha Christie is the bestselling novelist of all time, and nearly every story she ever wrote involves one—or, more commonly, several—dead bodies. And the cause of death, the motives behind violent crimes, the clues that inevitably are left behind, and the people who put the pieces together to solve the mystery invite the reader to analyze the evidence and race to find the answer before the detective does. Nearly every step of the way, Christie outlines the nuts and bolts of early twentieth-century crime detection, relying on physical evidence to tell the real story behind the facades humans erect to escape detection.
Christie wouldn't have talked of "forensics" as it is understood today—most of her work predates the modern developments of forensics science—but in each tale she harnesses the power of human observation, ingenuity, and scientific developments of the era. A fascinating, science-based deep dive, The Science of Murder examines the use of fingerprints, firearms, handwriting, blood spatter analysis, toxicology, and more in Christie's beloved works.
©2021, 2022 Carla Valentine (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Fascinating, know knowledeg of Christie required
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Classic Miss Marple - uneven narration
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A very human story by a very believable human
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Hit or miss Marple
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By: Agatha Christie, and others
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- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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This 1924 classic Agatha Christie Mystery features the exciting exploits of the young Anne Beddingfield. After her father, a renowned professor, dies suddenly, she goes out on her own for the first time to London in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargains for when sees a man die in a tube station and picks up a piece of paper dropped nearby.
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Worst Agatha Christie novel I’ve read
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All That Remains
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller fans, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
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I wanted a science book about forensics. I got a mostly-memoir instead.
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In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn't stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon 34 more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-19th-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome - a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Agatha Christie's first two Poirot novels, narrated with a general-American accent. The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Someone has poisoned wealthy Emily Inglethorp. But who? And how? Everyone suspects Emily's young husband, Alfred...and Alfred seems to be actually trying to get arrested and charged.... The Murder on the Links: Poirot comes to France in response to a desperate plea for help to find his client already murdered - stabbed in the back and lying in an open grave. Brusque, arrogant Inspector Giraud thinks he knows who did it.
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Love Agatha Christie
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By: Agatha Christie
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All That Is Wicked
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer—some have called him a “Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter”—whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity.
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PLEASE STOP The Politicizing of Everything
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Performance
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Story
A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.
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Another necessary work by Schector
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Forensics
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The dead talk - to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces.
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Crime Seen
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What the Dead Know
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—and she loved it. In What the Dead Know, she writes with the kind of New York attitude and bravado you might expect from decades in the field, investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, 680 of which were homicides.
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Didn’t Want The Book To End
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The Last Seance
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- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For lovers of the supernatural and the macabre comes this collection of ghostly and chilling stories from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. Fantastic psychic visions, specters looming in the shadows, encounters with deities, a man who switches bodies with a cat - be sure to keep the light on whilst listening to these tales. The Last Séance gathers 20 stories, some featuring Christie’s beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, in one haunting compendium that explores all things occult and paranormal, and is an essential omnibus for Christie fans.
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Not bad
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By: Agatha Christie
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The Teacher's Pet
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
If you thought you knew the story of The Teacher's Pet, get ready to be shocked. Hedley Thomas takes you behind the scenes with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time - the crime, the podcast investigation, the sexual exploitation of teenage students, the courtroom drama - and how justice was finally delivered.
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Can somebody please give the Narrator a cup of coffee
- By Jenny on 02-16-24
By: Hedley Thomas
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Silent Witnesses
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- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A crime scene. A murder. A mystery. The most important person on the scene? The forensic scientist. And yet the intricate details of their work remains a mystery to most of us. Silent Witnesses looks at the history of forensic science over the last two centuries, during which time a combination of remarkable intuition, painstaking observation, and leaps in scientific knowledge have developed this fascinating branch of detection.
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Homage to those dedicated to science
- By Patricia Ferrer on 07-25-17
By: Nigel McCrery
What listeners say about The Science of Murder
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Christine
- 12-18-22
Great book for all mystery lovers
Although the book focuses on Agatha Christie’s fiction, any reader of mysteries (and anyone with an interest in forensics) will enjoy this book. Besides the stories, the author also discusses true crimes as they pertain to both forensics and/or to Christie and her writing. The performance was wonderful.
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- reviewerz
- 10-28-24
Highly recommended
Thoughtful, informative, engaging. Written by a woman who is well versed on the subject. I will listen to this book again.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-23-22
Book = fabulous, narration = singsong-y
Loved the book, found it difficult to listen to as the narrator's voice has a singsong lilt to it that is very distracting.
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2 people found this helpful
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- kay klemens
- 02-25-23
the science of murder
this book was very intreaging about science information of how we learn about murder,all content was well put together an very interesting in learning about murders , plots, an devious ways to destroy human life. i enjoyed learning the skills an tech it takes to get the end results. good audible
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