The great French criminologist, Edmund Locard, put forward the theory that a criminal almost invariably leaves something of himself behind at the scene of a crime - a fingerprint, a scrap of fabric from his clothes, a fragment of his hair - perhaps even a bloodstain. More than one hapless wrong-doer has left behind a perfect set of teeth marks because he was unable to resist sampling an apple from the fruitbowl!

Valuable clues such as these can be the starting point of an exciting hunt, in which the forensic scientist's work can be just as suspense-filled as a fictional "whodunnit".

In Science Against Crime an impressive team of forensic scientists and experienced crime writers reveal the inside secrets of how modern technology is harnessed against the endless ingenuity of the lawbreaker. All the major areas of detection are explored - including criminal identification, forensic medicine, toxicology, ballistics, forgery and fingerprints.

Science Against Crime also includes many dramatic "case histories" which highlight the techniques used to track down the criminal involved. Written by an array of thriller writers, crime authors and freelance "buffs", some are gory horror tales of violence such as the Buck Ruxton case, others are intriguing examples of the calculating intelligence behind crime (as in the Howard Hughes hoax biography, and in the Markov murder). All are landmark cases in the history of detection, and every crime fan will be enthralled by these absorbing vignettes. Science Against Crime illustrates that the fight against the criminal is not merely a cold process of deduction. Rather, it is an elegant blend of logical method and intuitive understanding, in which science is raised to a consummate art.