'DNA analysis' is a phrase now on everyone's lips, whether it is a paternity test or the still rare test for genetic abnormalities. Above all, it is known to be a test used to identify victims of accidents and crimes, and possible suspects. What is really behind it, and the developments in the technique, however, often eludes the ordinary citizen. Not to mention that many do not even have the basics to understand what is being talked about. I can imagine, therefore, that hearing about genetic genealogy - i.e. the use of DNA profiling to identify a person by reconstructing their family tree, all using somewhat commercial archives - and its use by the police to name victims and perpetrators, can make many people jump in their seats. Humes' text introduces the subject by talking about a famous American cold case that was solved after more than thirty years using this technique.
Although very interesting from the point of view of the description of the case and the idea behind the use of the technique, the book has some flaws from a literary point of view. One would say, in fact, that the author has some problems in handling with sobriety the characters that move on the scene, who are presented with a gossip magazine language that clashes somewhat with the essentially divulgative essence of the book.

The true crime genre gets a bad rap – and sometimes, that's fair. The Forever Witness: How Genetic Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder, by Edward Humes, is everything this type of book should be, and nothing it should not.

The book explores how the 1987 murders of a young Canadian couple, Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook, in Washington State was finally solved using the revolutionary technique of genetic genealogy.

Humes offers a sympathetic portrait of the young victims without trying – as too many true crime writers do these days – to insert himself into their story or find some tenuous personal connection to them. The book offers enough detail about the crime to underscore its brutality, but Humes avoids sensationalizing it.

And the killer? A couple days after reading the book, I couldn't even recall his name. Humes interviewed people who knew him and sketches a portrait, but the author clearly doesn't consider him particularly fascinating and doesn't speculate endlessly about what might have driven him.

Humes does explore how the field of genetic genealogy evolved and profiles some of the key players. He explains cogently the ethical issues that have emerged. It's a fascinating read.

This is a serious, journalistic look at an emerging issue in criminal justice, told through the lens of one particular case.

I received an early review copy from NetGalley.

I’m a true crime junkie, this book was totally my jam. It also shows just how far we've come with technology. Having DNA testing, the internet, better communication, etc., the powers that be are at a huge advantage over those in the 80s.
This book also gives us a lot to think about when comparing the information we have, or could have, when trying to solve cold cases.
Loved it!

The Forever Witness is a true crime book that delves into an infamous unsolved double murder and into the development and science of genetic genealogy.

Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were Canadian residents who decided to take an overnight trip to Seattle. The two were very young, only 19 and 20, and they had been dating for six months. But the next day, when their parents don't see them coming home or calling, they knew something was wrong. On November 18th 1987 Tanya and Jay disappeared. Their bodies were found a few days later, but in very bad state. While the police started the investigation immediately, the case went cold only to be solved in 2018.

If you're not familiar with this case, as I was, you'll find even the smallest detail in this book: the background of the two young victims, the entire investigation done by local police and detective Jim Scharf, the consequences of this terrible murder on the victim's families and closest friends and all people involved. Despite the technical language often used (not difficult to follow at all), this book has a lot of heart and I have to say, I teared up a couple of times while reading it.

The second half of the book focuses on genetic genealogy, how it works and the essential involvement of CeCe Moore in the resolution of this case. This new and charming science helped solving several cold cases and in very short time, but not without controversy. Anyone can request to learn about their ancestry by submitting a sample of their DNA, but do they know / consent to have it used for other purposes?

Once identified the killer, we get to know his history, his relationship with his parents, sisters and friends. It was extremely interesting to read, I literally couldn't put this book down: it's very well written, the pacing and the amount of details provided is perfect.
I'm not exaggerating, this is the best true crime book I've ever had the pleasure to read so far.
5 stars.

* I'd like to thank Edward Humes, Dutton Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The amount of research that had to have gone into the creation of this masterpiece had to have been phenomenal. This was so well put together and is top tier for any true crime junkie. I love justice for a cold case.

Thank you to @NetGalley for this eARC of #TheForeverWitness

After thirty years the murderer of a Canadian Couple was arrested. But with that showed a battle between Justice and the right to privacy.

If you’re familiar with true crime topics you’ll understand the battle these genealogy tests we can do at home have caused.

On to my thoughts.
This book read just like some of my favourite true crime podcasts and shows. The author did an amazing job in explaining things so everyone can understand and also including details of the evolution of DNA testing, definitely a well written and interesting case told by this author.

The Forever Witness is a riveting account of the murder of a young Canadian couple that went unsolved for years until the advent of genetic genealogy.. What caught my interest in addition to having an interest in true crime because of my work as a staff attorney for a trial court was the area. My husband and I had taken a trip out west in 2006 to celebrate my purchase of a Mercedes sport coupe. We traveled up the California coastal highway into Oregon and then into Washington arriving at Port Angeles where we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island. The stretch of land in Washington truly is a haunting eerie tract of land that at the same is beautiful and peaceful Humes' account is detailed enough that I could follow it on Google maps. Humes' account is also easily readable by those who do not have any background in forensic science, law enforcement, or criminal trials.

I received an ARC of this book from Penguin Group via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. While I watch a lot of true crime, I don't read much of it, so I was eager to try something new here. I was particularly interested as this was a crime that I had never heard of. It reads like fiction with a great entertainment value. Towards the end when the book gets into specifics of the DNA research/ comparison, the author did a great job trying to explain a complex scientific subject. I found it fascinating to read about the differences in technology available for crime solving between the 80's and now. It makes me wonder how we ever solved anything back then.

Really my only complaint is that a few parts were unnecessarily drawn out/ descriptive (such as what the detective ate for breakfast). I think some of the minute details really added to anything but just made the book longer.

As a reader I am always looking for both a compelling story and good writing regardless of the subject matter. As a former scientist, I appreciate this even more when I pick up a work of scientific non-fiction because I know how often these two elements are undervalued in the genre. In The Forever Witness, Edward Humes succeeds where many others fail and the result will rightfully appeal to a wide variety of readers.

Humes masterfully handles the complex topic of genetic genealogy by addressing its function, its history, its shortcomings, its seemingly miraculous results, and its ongoing controversies and implications. Any reader with a curiosity about the evolving use of DNA and genetic genealogy in solving crimes should read this book. Humes provides the clearest, most coherent, and approachable narrative on the topic available today. This book will answer many of the questions that have arisen for true crime followers since the arrest of The Golden State Killer, one of the first highly publicized, but poorly explained genetic genealogy success stories.

Despite the thorough nature of Humes’ exploration of genetic genealogy, a reader would be hard pressed to decide whether this book is about the science of DNA in criminology, or if it is a true crime story about the tragic murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook. Hume is, at heart, a gifted storyteller. He brings these two young people to life, immersing the reader in the frustration and anguish of their family and detectives as they struggle to solve the case. We are on the edge of our seats as it appears that the tenuous emergence of genetic genealogy may provide resolution. He expertly marries the science and the story so neither are lacking in this work. This is a title that should be a staple for true crime readers and science lovers alike.

My gratitude goes out to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for access to this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This was a reasonably well-written true crime story, one I was not familiar with. While the prose was not edge-of-your-seat thrilling, it did keep me intrigued enough to continue reading to the end. The timeline was easy to follow and the facts were well-represented. I enjoyed the tie-ins to genetic genealogy and how this particular case was at the forefront of its conception. If you're at all interested in what happens to your DNA after you submit your spit to Ancestry or 23andMe, give this a read.

This sortve reads like a fateline/60 minutes transcript, but I really really enjoyed it! First true crime book and I'm excited for more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy to read. This book read like a dateline show as it was very wordy and incredibly descriptive. I believe if you are a true crime junkie love Dateline, Unsolved mysteries or are interested in learning more about DNA/genealogy this is up your alley. I enjoyed it as it was incredibly interesting.

I love true crime, books, podcasts, documentaries anything you can think of. I was so excited to get this ARC. Im always worried non fiction books wouldnt be as interesting but this one was great!

I am a huge fan of true crime. Most of the books I read, shows I watch and groups I’m apart of, are about true crime. So when I read this book, I was very excited. I was so interested because the case was solved using generic genealogy and the author does a great job explaining everything. I love the argument about using the DNA and privacy, it really made you think. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes true crime, science & forensics.

<i>The Forever Witness</i> is an expertly researched and written overview of law enforcement's efforts to solve cold cases, mostly homicides and sexual assaults, using a rich and usually incontestable resource: databases full of DNA profiles. Despite its subtitle, the book touches on not one, but several cases that were solved with the assistance of genetic genealogy.

Humes's decision to focus on the murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook, rather than try either to discuss the field in abstract terms or to diffuse the discussion through several cases, made the difference between a great book and merely a good one. Every possible perspective was covered in a sympathetic light: the victims' families, the frustrated, tireless detectives, the overcaffeinated altruistic civilian DNA sleuths, and even, in a fascinating summary of the tug of war between law enforcement and the DNA databases, the privacy of suspects in these revived investigations.

Privacy absolutists have a tough slog ahead of them here. Genetic genealogy compares DNA collected from a crime scene with the profiles of hundreds of thousands of people in databases like GEDmatch. The idea is not to find Bad Guy's profile in the database – although that would be great, so all murderers and rapists are encouraged by this reviewer to submit their DNA without delay – but to put detectives on the right track by whittling possible suspects down to people who share Bad Guy's paternal DNA.

With the public's interest in its privacy ever waning, it will be hard to defend the idea that a murderer or rapist has a reasonable expectation of privacy in, not his <i>own</i> genetic code, but <i>his relatives'</i>. And the prospect of bringing finality to victims and their families – to say nothing of preventing Bad Guy from killing or raping again – is almost impossible to resist, when the countervailing interest will be seen as an abstract benefit best enjoyed within the four walls of a first-year law-school classroom.

Humes is professionally coy about his leanings on this question, leaving readers to form their own conclusions. (Although one does not write <i>The Forever Witness</i> harboring indignation about a detective's efforts to "violate the privacy" of a rapist's grandfather.)

This book is a powerful, accessible proof of concept. Genetic genealogy is a cheap, minimally intrusive method for obliterating backlogs of unsolved murders and sexual assaults, bringing victims and their families the closure they deserve, and bringing to justice the most dangerous people among us. Legislators, take note.

The Forever Witness begins with the story of a double homicide in Washington. Humes then goes over the history of genetic genealogy, from its beginnings through its triumphs. It ends with current events on this topic and discusses controversies surrounding using it. At the center of this history is the case of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg and the detective who ultimately solved their case, Jim Scharf. This book is written in a storytelling, fiction style, which keeps the reader engaged and makes all the technical details make a lot of sense. As someone who enjoys true crime and science, this book was very interesting. I loved learning about the connection between the two things and the evolution of this science, and about how it can be used to both nail a criminal and give back John and Jane Does their identities.

Thank you to the publisher Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for an early galley of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I liked how linear this book was. I also liked how informative it was about the progression of forensic genealogy. You could tell that research, time, and effort were put into this to do right by the victims and their families. There are a few faults with forensic genealogy like ethics and privacy but it has helped solve a few cold cases so the question now is: is it worth the price?

I did really enjoy this book and would recommend to anyone who is a fan of true crime.

The case in this book was super interesting!! I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it was different from what I expected. I may have misread the description slightly, but it did come across to me like this would be a fiction true crime-style novel. I still greatly enjoyed this, even though it wasn't what I expected at first!

Special thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC of The Forever Witness that releases on 11/29/22.

Give me all the things true crime, murder mystery etc....so when I saw the title alone I Know I had to read about this Cold Case. Just like on a tv show this page turner did NOT disappoint - it was very engaging and I absolutely loved it. This case focuses on a decades on double murder that has gone completely cold!. However, it is now one of the first to be solved by genetic genealogy and DNA (how cool - yes totally a science nerd). I loved how thoroughly detailed this book was without being overwhelming; loved the DNA science. Really great read for all my true crime readers!

This book was so good! I want to see more from this author in the future!! I couldn't put this book down. What a page turner!!!