I’ve been dipping into another old handbook on forensic medicine. This one is by Johann Ludwig Casper. It’s called A Handbook of the Practice of Forensic Medicine, and it was translated into English by George William Balfour. The third edition, which is the one I’ve been referring to, dates from 1861 and is freely available …
Only because you wait ages for one to mention you, then two do at once. The Guardian mentioned me in this piece about authors on twitter on Friday. The Independent on Sunday namechecked me in this piece about authors who take on other writers’ characters today. Perhaps this means I exist? Not sure, actually.
As a historical crime writer, I’m naturally interested in the forensic methods and knowledge of earlier times. I try to track down old handbooks on the subject, one such being Henry Cadwalader Chapman’s Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity and Toxicology. It’s slightly after my period, but a lot of the techniques it discusses were in …
From A Manual Of Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity and Toxicology (1903) Read More »
This is marvellous for me. I can almost feel I’m there, as I write my new book! I can’t wait for the water to freeze over. And then the thaw too, in spring. That’s when my new book will be set, the last in my Porfiry Petrovich quartet.
During his time as an inmate of a katorga (prison camp) in Siberia, Dostoevsky had plenty of opportunity to observe murderers at close range. His observations are interesting, and clearly informed his later work. In the following extract, he identifies one particular type of murderer that he said was often encountered: “He lives quietly and …