Fingerprints

Colin Beavan

ISBN 10: 1841157392 / ISBN 13: 9781841157399

Published by Fourth Estate, London, 2002

About this Item

Grey card covers, slight crease to spine. Faint tanning to pages. Size: 8vo.

Seller Inventory # 67344

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fingerprints
• Publisher: Fourth Estate, London
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841157392
• ISBN 13: 9781841157399
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Paperback.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Crime

About this title

Synopsis

The extraordinary true story of the development of the science of identity and the history of fingerprint detection.

In 1905 an elderly couple were found murdered in their shop in Deptford, London. The only evidence at the scene of the crime was a sweaty fingerprint on a cashbox. Was it possible that a single fingerprint could be enough to lead to a conviction? Could the pattern of these tracks hold the secrets of the science of identification?

Through the story of three brilliant men: William Herschel, a colonial administrator in Indian, Henry Faulds, a missionary in Japan and Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, the extraordinary story of the history of fingerprinting is revealed.

It is a story of intellectual skulduggery and scientific brilliance. Packed with an extraordinary cast of individuals whose scientific breakthroughs helped solve one of the most brutal murders in English history and shape our understanding of identity forever.

About the Author

Colin Beavan is a magazine journalist writing for ‘Esquire’ and ‘Atlantic Monthly’. He gained his Ph.D in applied physics from the University of Liverpool.