Ian Burney Books

The book delves into the conflict between two perspectives on the coroner's inquest regarding unexplained deaths. Advocates of modern medical science sought to align the inquest with a scientific investigative model, while others viewed it as a crucial protector of traditional English liberties. This clash reveals underlying uncertainties about the emergence of science as a dominant form of socially accepted knowledge, questioning the assumptions surrounding its authority in society.

A history of poisoning in the nineteenth century and in particular the case of Dr William Palmer, convicted of murder by poisoning, and how he baffled toxicologists, doctors, detectives and judges -- .

The authors tell the engrossing history of how, in the first half of the twentieth century, novel routines, regulations, and techniques--from chain-of-custody procedures to the analysis of hair, blood, and fiber--fundamentally transformed the processing of murder scenes. Focusing on two iconic English investigations--the 1924 case of Emily Kaye, who was beaten and dismembered by her lover at a lonely beachfront holiday cottage, and the 1953 investigation into John Christie's serial murders in his dingy terraced home in London's West End--Burney and Pemberton chart the emergence of the crime scene as a new space of forensic activity.