A gripping memoir from a senior crime scene investigator in the UK, including how she's dealt with PTSD as a result of her job. True crime fans won't be able to put this down!

This was a fantastic and very interesting read! I think everyone watched at one time in their life CSI and this book showed how it actually is.

It is a fascinating but nasty job. It can be intriguing but it can also make you suffer. It shows the ups and downs.

An interesting book and worth a read but I would have preferred to read more about ways in which evidence was collected and used. It seemed to skim over things quite a lot.

I am in a huge true crime/policing mood at the moment and when I saw this book available to request, I jumped on it immediately. This book did not disappoint in the slightest. I have always been in awe of forensic scientists and their ability to do such a difficult job, and this book was a true testament to this. The author has done a phenomenal job of highlighting the true highs and lows of the career, as well as being incredibly honest and raw on her experiences. Absolutely fantastic

I love reading books from people who have worked in forensics. It’s nice to know that my experiences weren’t so different. I also like to read their case studies and personal stories. Like Jo said, the trauma from the work you do hits when you least expect it. There are three cases I still think about almost twenty years after working in the field. One was a woman who, on video, abandoned her infant to die in a dumpster. Another was a pedophile who had 150+ victims’ photos on his computer hard drive. The last was a young man who brutally murdered his grandfather because he refused to give him money. I had to look at the faces of the victims for far too long. All three cases still stick with me. I’ve seen all types of crimes, but those were the ones that made me have to take breaks so the trauma didn’t overtake me especially since I had a small child at the time. The only thing that got me through some days on those cases was knowing that I would play some small part in putting the guilty parties in prison for the rest of their lives. And that’s why we do what we do (or did, in my case). It’s not glamorous and there’s no one out there patting you on the back. But the feeling you get from helping a family get closure in whatever capacity you did is unmatched. Jo’s story was enlightening and inspiring. Were I still in the field and around younger people new to it, I would insist they read her story. It was fascinating to read and I highly recommend it for anyone who is curious what it is like working on the other side of the crime scene tape.

Huge thanks to Quarto Publishing Group/White Lion and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

I became aware of the author of this book via a recent TV series covering some of their work. I found it a fascinating subject and so was eager to learn a little more. The book opens with the basic principles of the fact that "every contact leaves a trace" and then describes the arrival at a crime scene. In part this is an autobiographical book which means that some of the book is about Jo's personal life. After looking briefly at her childhood it moves on to the fact that she joined a local athletics club (& was a good runner) and discovered an interest in/understanding of basic anatomy.

Initially Jo worked for an insurance company but that did little for her. She then applied to the police and got a job there. However an advert for a forensics role intrigued here. She does say that this would not happen any longer however before her interview she attended a post mortem examination… (she enjoyed it) and got the job. The book looks at the training she did and then working on gradually more complex crime scenes. She progresses (!) from decomposed bodies via suicides to murders. It is worth noting that while this makes for very easy reading in terms of the writing the content is not for the faint hearted and may trouble some people.

She does broaden the writing out to look at pertinent local issues as well as the difficulty of dealing with the dead and particularly children. She trains for the role of crime scene manager and a little to her surprise gets a job as one at the age of 31. She also starts a family around this time. Maybe unsurprisingly she suffers from PTSD after a particularly nasty case. Her openness about this and other aspects of her work and personal life made for a very "human" story for me.

There are the cases that will never be forgotten as well as the cutbacks on staff by managers who quite obviously do not understand the issues involved. She also looks at managing a crime scene while it's being filmed by a BBC TV crew. During this series she was open about her PTSD and was surprised (and pleased) with the feedback she got. Overall I found this to be a common sense person writing accessibly about her life and the challenging role which she so obviously enjoys. A great read for those with a taste for such things.

What an amazing fascinating book full of interesting information and insights I couldn’t love this more !!

it was outstanding!

Definitely worth a read !

I love watching true crime on TV so I was delighted to read this book. This is a fascinating read from an author who has spent 25 years working as a Crime Scene Investigator. The book is well-written and not too technical for the general reader. I loved how the author covered both her work and home life and raised questions about the impact of her work on mental health.
Highly recommended for readers interested in true crime.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am an educator in forensic science, so in some ways this book was perfect for me, and in others imperfect. I will start with the imperfect. I would have liked more on the actual forensic science. I felt that some of this was watered down. Now, maybe this is because of my expertise in this subject, but I feel like the author could have done a better job of going over some of the sciences and clarifying some of the misconceptions that most of the general public has due to the prevalence of TV shows such as CSI.

However, I thought that she did an excellent job on covering the emotional aspects of being a forensic investigator. People rarely think about the impact of investigating violent crime scenes will have on a person's mental health. Mental health in First Responders and especially police officers is rarely discussed despite the fact that they tend to have some of the worst mental health. So I greatly appreciated her candid discussion on having PTSD and experiencing depression and suicidal ideation.

Overall, 4 stars. I would have liked more science because I am a scientist, but if you are not a forensic scientist this is likely the perfect amount of science for you.

**Usually don’t like rating real life books based on people or written by the person as I feel that someone's life can’t really be rated. **

However, I loved the insight into forensic investigators and this was written well. Touched on a few hard topics, for example, PTSD but it was done well.

Would definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed this book 😊 the author found a great balance of giving us the gory details (which is what I want!!) and her home life as well. This things this author has gone through!! What a Queen!! 👸🏼 she really highlights the mental health issues faced in policing and that no one speaks up. It was interesting to read how the support for our policing staff in the UK have gone from barely any support to a lot more now. I also enjoyed learning more about what crime scene investigators do, it was very interesting. A solid 4 star read!

A fantastic book.

Jo Ward is from the West Midlands UK, and has spent 25 years working as a Crime Scene Investigator.

I found this gripping, enormously interesting, and totally fascinating. It was so easy to read; not over-technical, and with vivid descriptions.

What a brilliant first chapter. This is the kind of book that really interests me. It was late at night, and I was looking for something new to read. I had a quick dip in-a bit late to carry on reading..... but I just couldn't stop.

Cases from natural causes, to gory and gruesome. Some things are so shocking. Nothing is held back in this memoir.

I'd not heard of the TV series-it's exactly the kind of thing I love to watch, and I will do-but I'm so glad I read the book first.

What a great memoir.

It’s no secret in my family what my favorite types of shows to watch are, anything and everything to do with police investigations and forensics. Probably if I had realized it when I was younger this is a field I would have enjoyed working in. It is a bit gory and mind widening, but I would expect nothing less from an expert in her field. Very well done Jo!

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley

I found this to be an informative read, detailing the British author’s career in forensics. Although it's gory at times, which is to be expected. From how she got started and advanced through the ranks. She’s lucky enough to have a very supportive husband who was understanding when she faced challenges at work and at home. I always enjoy figuring out what some British terms mean when they differ from ours.

Jo Ward has an incredibly difficult but absolutely fascinating job working in police forensics as a crime scenes coordinator. Her book details her career and life and how she came to work and rise in police forensics. She details her day to day work, the importance of her job and many of the most memorable cases she has worked on.
Jo has feature in a BBC documentary, Forensics, which I have not seen, but I am sure she is shown to be the caring professional that she is. Every victim that she encounters, she treats with respect, talking to them and apologising to them as she passes them on to the next person dealing with them. I would hope that every forensic person would be so compassionate as Jo.
The book does not soften the role, talking of how difficult it is, the stress it causes, the impact it has on family life and the terrible sights that are seen (spoken of in some detail). All of this is made so much more difficult by the continual budget cuts to the police service which has an impact on areas of the work of the police. It is absolutely shocking, and must be heartbreaking for professionals like Jo to see what is happening.
One matter I thought that it is very unnecessary to mention, was when discussing the gallows humour that is employed at work, Jo gives a specific example of when it was employed on a particular case she dealt with. I felt this was very uncomfortable reading and would be shocking if the family of the victim were to read the book. Whilst I accept that gallows humour is perhaps inevitable, I felt it was really inappropriate to give an example of it actually being used; it was not needed.
Other than the one point above, I really enjoyed this book which gave a fascinating insight into the workings of forensics and a unique personal view of how it impacts on the people who do the work, which we do not normally see.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.