When Henry Wilkins said his wife was murdered by someone else they were two things he didn’t expect one was a witness and two the lie detector. Thanks to the first cop with the PhD John Larson who was obsessed with figuring out the criminal mind and his roommate and best friend Lee Kimler(that may not be how you spell his name) unfortunately after this groundbreaking case one would want to advanced science and the other wanted to get rich and neither agreed with each other. This was such an interesting book I Love the historical True Crime cases in the book and the historical facts about how the lie detector became so unreliable in America‘s eyes. This was such a great book and it’s exactly the kind of book I love I think Amit Katwala did a wonderful job with the subject matter and telling the story. You can tell he is a seasoned journalist and a man that does his due diligence to tell the whole story kudos to you. If you love historical crime you love Trimmers In The Blood I certainly did and think this is a definite five star listen. I love the narrator and that always makes this the perfect audiobook. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

When I was looking for new ARCs, I liked the title of this book and I wasn't disappointed. You would think that the invention and early use of the polygraph machine wouldn't be too interesting, but you would be wrong. I really like when non-fiction authors tell a story rather than just piece together a bunch of facts or newspaper articles. That is exactly what author Amit Katwala does. While it focuses on the death of a mother of two that was one of the first big cases for the polygraph, we also learn a lot about the creation, testing, successes and failures of this fascinating machine. There is a lot of historical information brought together to make a great story.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This way a fascinating view into the creation and refinement of the polygraph machine - I never knew the history of it before, and I thought the audio narration was really good to keep people engaged. I also loved that the author consulted the works of Kate Winkler Dawson, and gave us another side of stories she had previously written about.

I also thought it was a neat idea that they included the Wilkens story at the very beginning, so once it got into the history of the machine, we could see where the stories vs the machine were differentiating.

In the 1920’s a new device was introduced into a homicide investigation in Berkley, California. The device will cause a lot of legal and emotional turmoil and will later be called a polygraph machine. This book looks at the historical context of how the polygraph machine was introduced into law enforcement and the people that were involved.

This book is pretty good. The focus is on the polygraph (lie detector) machine and how it fits into the history of law enforcement. There were times when it may not seem like the book was focused on the topic but in order to better understand how the machine legally impacted society the reader needs to understand what was going on at the time. I enjoyed the book and liked when the book “America Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI” was mentioned because it helped to bring the two books together to form a better understanding of what was going on in Berkley in law enforcement at the time. Both books also discuss the Fatty Arbuckle case which was a huge scandal at the time. This is a good general read on the topic.

I started listening at normal speed and sped it up to 2.0. The narrator was clear and concise. I somewhat question the use of the accents, since it could be off putting to some listeners, even though it didn’t overly bother me.

In the summer of 1922, Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife’s blood. As the investigation proceeds, is the husband grieving or guilty?
To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by John Larson, Gus Vollmer, and Leonarde Keeler
They hoped the lie detector would make the justice system fairer, but the flawed device soon grew too powerful and we are still dealing with the consequences today.
I never knew the history of how the polygraph came to be used in law enforcement. I found myself drawn in and hanging on every word waiting to see what happened.
The audio was very well read. The pace was good and the volume and speed of the voice were just right.