It's said that "dead men tell no tales" - yet their bones have some interesting stories to reveal. That's what police depend on when the only clues to a crime are the bones of the victim. Then it's time to call in the "bone detectives."
Following forensic anthropologist Dr. Michael Charney step-by-step through an investigation, this book shows how a person's sex, race, age, height, and weight can be determined from studying his or her bones and teeth; how markings on bones can be "read" to establish cause of death; how a sculptor uses clay to reconstruct a face from a skull so it can be publicized in the media and possibly recognized; and how all of this information can be used to help crack a case.
Curious young readers will revel in every eerie detail of award-winning journalist Donna Jackson's lively text and Charlie Fellenbaum's full-color photographs as they discover how these fascinating detectives help the stories behind the bones come to life.
"Science lovers will appreciate this book. There are only 175 bone detectives practicing in North America who are 'trained to extract the most amount of information from the least amount of bone.'
The book follows Dr. Charney who describes the mystery, the mental and physical processes of discovering the truth about recent murders or historic personages ranges from the Iceman to Jesse James."
— Children's Literature