Traces: The memoir of a forensic scientist and criminal investigator

‘Engrossing, emotionally honest and forensically fascinating’ - Dr Richard Shepherd, author of Unnatural Causes

In Traces, Professor Patricia Wiltshire will take you on a journey through the fascinating edgeland where nature and crime are intertwined.

She’ll take you searching for bodies of loved ones - through woodlands, along hedgerows, field-edges, and through plantations - solving time since death, and disposal of remains, from ditches to living rooms. She will give you glimpses of her own history: her loves, her losses, and the narrow little valley in Wales where she first woke up to the wonders of the natural world. Pat will show you how her work with a microscope reveals tell-tale traces of the world around us, and how these have taken suspects of the darkest criminal activities to court.

From flowers, fungi, tree trunks to car pedals, walking boots, carpets, and corpses’ hair, Traces is a fascinating, unique, and utterly compelling book on life, death, and one’s indelible link with nature.