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A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes
The forensic entomologist turns a dispassionate, analytic eye on scenes from which most people would recoil--human corpses in various stages of decay, usually the remains of people who have met a premature end through accident or mayhem. To Lee Goff and his fellow forensic entomologists, each body recovered at a crime scene is an ecosystem, a unique microenvironment colonized in succession by a diverse array of flies, beetles, mites, spiders, and other some using the body to provision their young, some feeding directly on the tissues and by-products of decay, and still others preying on the scavengers.
Using actual cases on which he has consulted, Goff shows how knowledge of these insects and their habits allows forensic entomologists to furnish investigators with crucial evidence about crimes. Even when a body has been reduced to a skeleton, insect evidence can often provide the only available estimate of the postmortem interval, or time elapsed since death, as well as clues to whether the body has been moved from the original crime scene, and whether drugs have contributed to the death.
An experienced forensic investigator who regularly advises law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad, Goff is uniquely qualified to tell the fascinating if unsettling story of the development and practice of forensic entomology.
Using actual cases on which he has consulted, Goff shows how knowledge of these insects and their habits allows forensic entomologists to furnish investigators with crucial evidence about crimes. Even when a body has been reduced to a skeleton, insect evidence can often provide the only available estimate of the postmortem interval, or time elapsed since death, as well as clues to whether the body has been moved from the original crime scene, and whether drugs have contributed to the death.
An experienced forensic investigator who regularly advises law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad, Goff is uniquely qualified to tell the fascinating if unsettling story of the development and practice of forensic entomology.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 11, 2022
Goff's Fly for the Prosecution is about forensic entomology. It's a pretty thorough book, while still being suitable for a lay audience, covering the full range of the discipline: the history of forensic entomology, determining short post-mortem periods, determining long post-mortem periods, the effects of drugs, the effects of different environments, plus some specifics to the forensic process itself, including how to cope and giving testimony in court. There's even an index at the back, so the book can be used as a reference.
I imagine the intended audience being people who are into entomology in general, and thinking of going into the field of forensic entomology. I also think the book will appeal to many of the fans of murder/detective stories, though it does get a bit technical and some might find it dull.
My only complaint about the book - and it's a very small one - is that the author comes off as a little full of himself. This is particularly the case toward the end, where he contrasts the poor practices of other forensic entomologists against his own, good, practices. I feel like he could have found a different way of covering that material, either by depersonalizing it entirely or, at least, by letting some of his colleagues serve as the good examples every so often.
But other than that, his writing style was quite good and, given the material, fairly entertaining. He's no Mary Roach, certainly, but he did manage to make descriptions of various fly species seem interesting.
The material, being forensic, is by nature quite gross. But I'm generally okay with corpse stuff. I get that icky feeling, but it's well within what interest can compensate for. The only chapter I really struggled with was the one where he talked about doing forensic entomology on the living (all children or senior abuse victims). That really tried the hardiness of my stomach, even as I appreciate the value of the work.
I imagine the intended audience being people who are into entomology in general, and thinking of going into the field of forensic entomology. I also think the book will appeal to many of the fans of murder/detective stories, though it does get a bit technical and some might find it dull.
My only complaint about the book - and it's a very small one - is that the author comes off as a little full of himself. This is particularly the case toward the end, where he contrasts the poor practices of other forensic entomologists against his own, good, practices. I feel like he could have found a different way of covering that material, either by depersonalizing it entirely or, at least, by letting some of his colleagues serve as the good examples every so often.
But other than that, his writing style was quite good and, given the material, fairly entertaining. He's no Mary Roach, certainly, but he did manage to make descriptions of various fly species seem interesting.
The material, being forensic, is by nature quite gross. But I'm generally okay with corpse stuff. I get that icky feeling, but it's well within what interest can compensate for. The only chapter I really struggled with was the one where he talked about doing forensic entomology on the living (all children or senior abuse victims). That really tried the hardiness of my stomach, even as I appreciate the value of the work.
April 4, 2014
Maggots, maggots, maggots...and not a drop to drink! This is a book about crawly things that feed on bigger things postmortem (and sometimes pre-), en masse, clustering at open means of ingress here, elsewhere creating portals of their own (amazing what a few thousand tiny sets of mandibles can do). It is a book for the unsqueamish, those intrepid armchair explorers of things unknown and ill-considered who gaze now and then upon the grassy cosmos 'neath their feet and wonder: how long before a corpse-feeding maggot of the common housefly type pupates? And what if the maggoty body in question is lying in a desert, or a puddle, or is suspended from a cliff's edge? It is a book, finally, that answers the question: what's the grossest fascinating job a person can have? Intrigued? Give it a read. You might want a couple of Tums at the ready in case. Just sayin'...
December 29, 2021
I read this out of curiosity - as I've read several books on forensic schience - a curiosity piqued by a lifetime being sold crime fiction via novels, TV and cinema. Judging by the statistics, books on forensic sciences and crime detection sell to a much wider audience than could be explained by simply counting students of forensic science ... and police officers ... and other professionally interested parties.
It seems that we, the general public, want to know the gory details of death and murder most foul. When I shuffle off, when can my cadavre expect its first visit by a fly, when will the first 'worm' turn in my innards? I sometimes watch flies running across a window pane or struggling in a spider's web and wonder, will it be one of your lot which lays the first egg?
There's clearly scope for a social scientist like myself to investigate this public need to comprehend bodily deconstruction in death. Have we learned to see crime and violence as a commodity to be consumed and sanitised as fiction while we ignore the social causes of crime? I could plunge into a psychological, sociological and political deconstruction of popular understandings of crime and its fictionalisation ... but I'm trying to review a book. The actual review is quiet short - but spare yourself the time to consider the wider nature of crime ... give yourself a chance to undertake your own forensic analysis of why so many lay people would want to read a book like this.
Lee Goff produces a very stimulating book. He is not a great writer - this is not Dickens or Dostoevsky or Chandler. He's pioneered a field, there's material here to stimulate those working in his field - whether forensic scientists, police officers, lawyers, or anyone else likely to be involved in the identification of the dead. He writes with decency and with respect for the victims of crime - there's no sensationalisation of murder most foul here, no reduction of injury detail to gory pornography. His account is functional and rational - he explains, he develops understanding, he emphasises the need to question and to develop a logic of enquiry rather than leap to conclusions.
Very interesting read, very calm and humane, very decent ... and with just that little subtext of humour to keep you on that essential human, humane plane when you're dealing with death and bereavement. Someone's loss of life is someone else's loss; in death there is pain for the living. Lee Goff emphasises that in death we need to show compassion, for living and dead.
Excellent, informative book ... but, if you're looking for gory detail and forensic porn, you won't find it here.
It seems that we, the general public, want to know the gory details of death and murder most foul. When I shuffle off, when can my cadavre expect its first visit by a fly, when will the first 'worm' turn in my innards? I sometimes watch flies running across a window pane or struggling in a spider's web and wonder, will it be one of your lot which lays the first egg?
There's clearly scope for a social scientist like myself to investigate this public need to comprehend bodily deconstruction in death. Have we learned to see crime and violence as a commodity to be consumed and sanitised as fiction while we ignore the social causes of crime? I could plunge into a psychological, sociological and political deconstruction of popular understandings of crime and its fictionalisation ... but I'm trying to review a book. The actual review is quiet short - but spare yourself the time to consider the wider nature of crime ... give yourself a chance to undertake your own forensic analysis of why so many lay people would want to read a book like this.
Lee Goff produces a very stimulating book. He is not a great writer - this is not Dickens or Dostoevsky or Chandler. He's pioneered a field, there's material here to stimulate those working in his field - whether forensic scientists, police officers, lawyers, or anyone else likely to be involved in the identification of the dead. He writes with decency and with respect for the victims of crime - there's no sensationalisation of murder most foul here, no reduction of injury detail to gory pornography. His account is functional and rational - he explains, he develops understanding, he emphasises the need to question and to develop a logic of enquiry rather than leap to conclusions.
Very interesting read, very calm and humane, very decent ... and with just that little subtext of humour to keep you on that essential human, humane plane when you're dealing with death and bereavement. Someone's loss of life is someone else's loss; in death there is pain for the living. Lee Goff emphasises that in death we need to show compassion, for living and dead.
Excellent, informative book ... but, if you're looking for gory detail and forensic porn, you won't find it here.
May 28, 2024
3.5*, rounded down
A book about forensic entomology, one that I picked up because of enjoying Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death so much last year. This was not as gripping--and, more pressingly, seems mostly to only focus on cases where Goff is right, without really ever touching on the fact that time of death just isn't as cut-and-dry as many investigators would like, whether using traditional forensics, forensic anthropology, forensic entomology etc. etc.
I wouldn't have minded except it's also quite a dry book, in the end. Not because it was overly technical, just in that the writing style wasn't to my tastes. But there was a lot of interesting things to learn, particularly about the different stages of decomposition and how different the insects are during each stage; about the ways climate, location and barriers can all radically change things, and about his and other entomologists efforts to earn legitimacy within the forensics community.
Generally, I'd only rec this to people really interested in insects and the interesting art of time-of-death estimations, and if they wanted a more in-depth follow-up on entomology after reading Corpse.
A book about forensic entomology, one that I picked up because of enjoying Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death so much last year. This was not as gripping--and, more pressingly, seems mostly to only focus on cases where Goff is right, without really ever touching on the fact that time of death just isn't as cut-and-dry as many investigators would like, whether using traditional forensics, forensic anthropology, forensic entomology etc. etc.
I wouldn't have minded except it's also quite a dry book, in the end. Not because it was overly technical, just in that the writing style wasn't to my tastes. But there was a lot of interesting things to learn, particularly about the different stages of decomposition and how different the insects are during each stage; about the ways climate, location and barriers can all radically change things, and about his and other entomologists efforts to earn legitimacy within the forensics community.
Generally, I'd only rec this to people really interested in insects and the interesting art of time-of-death estimations, and if they wanted a more in-depth follow-up on entomology after reading Corpse.
November 6, 2024
This book was totally fascinating. Written almost 25 years ago, the cases cited are even more dated, but regardless, it gives a detailed scientific picture of the use of insects in determining time of death or “the postmortem interval.” Our author is an entomologist in Hawaii and both teaches at a University as a tenured professor and assists law-enforcement in solving murders using insect identification, maturity, and activity. He also describes his own experiments utilizing pigs under varying circumstances, as well as how he extrapolates local weather data in his pursuit to nail the arthropods down to a time frame. I became interested in this topic popularized in the TV drama, “Bones.” Then about a year ago, I took an online lecture sponsored by The Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO with an entomologist who shared a couple of her cases with the group. It was she who suggested this book for those of us looking for more case study detail. This book is dry sometimes in the way that all scientific explanations can be but is riveting in its real world application of insect activity in helping solve crimes. A substantial amount of time is also spent on the evolution of entomology as a forensic science, including the author’s participation and chairmanship in different boards and associations. I found this part less interesting although an important piece of the puzzle. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in insects or forensics.
September 29, 2023
I found this book fascinating. Dr. Goff has quite a sense of humor (he calls it gallows humor). The methodology like science had some repeition, but it spoke to the scientist in me. I'm not a entymologist and I don't think I would want to study forensic entomology, but I really enjoyed reading about it. After I read this book and watching many crime shows, Dr. Goff shows up in many. I know he was consultant to CSI, which still is one of my favorite tv series. Many stress the importance that time of death has in a case and entymology has a definite role. The challenge is to examine all the variables which alter the growth and development of flies and maggots.
My enthusiasm for this book was not matched by my friends.
My enthusiasm for this book was not matched by my friends.
May 17, 2020
Best book I've ever read about working in Hawaii as a forensic entomologist and developing the application of bug knowledge into a legitimate part of the justice system (read: flies as evidence - figuring out the age of maggots is hilariously/grotesquely still one of the best and most reliable methods of figuring out how long a corpse has been around); but admittedly also the only book I've ever read concerning the aforementioned
May 23, 2020
I heard about this book from one of the ladies in a local book club. She made it sound very interesting. And it was, up to a point. After a while, the beats of the book get a little monotonous; there's no ebb and flow, just a steady stream of facts. If you are a big fan of scientific books, this is going to be very interesting. If you are having trouble concentrating on books right now, this may not be the book for you because it is very detail heavy.
August 23, 2018
Although the title my seem a bit gross, this is a very interesting book. Not only can times of death be established with insects, occasionally the cause of death may also be found using insects
January 9, 2019
Super interesting topic. Got through 3 chapters before being totally grossed out.
September 2, 2021
Really good book if you're into forensic entomology. It is NOT for the squeamish by any means.
December 4, 2008
A discussion of forensic sciences would not be complete without mentioning forensic entomology-the study of insects and arthropods that inhabit decomposing remains. We're talking maggots and flies, mites and beetles. Icky to some, indeed, but to others, very intriguing, especially those interested in determining the time or post-mortem interval and location of a death.
Dr. Goff dives deep into the various species that visit the dead, and describes how they arrive in a very specific order and stay for a set amount of time. Maggots go through stages of development and leave behind evidence of their growth that an entomologist can use to determine how long a body has been exposed to insect activity.
This varies by location and weather, of course, and a local specialist is always best to use in cases where insect activity is investigated. Goff works in Hawaii and is very familiar with the species found locally. He consults with other entomologists when he takes a case stateside.
All effective forensic scientific investigation in the field requires photos, proper collection of evidence, preservation of that evidence, and analysis of the evidence and photos. Forensic entomologists also collect data on temperature and climate changes, as well as specimens from the body, under the body, and within 15 feet of the body. (Some larvae crawl away from the body when they are ready to transform into flies.)
All of this is described in great detail in A Fly for the Prosecution. In fact, squeamish readers might want to skim certain passages. There are long sections discussing the different types of bugs--blowflies, coffin flies, cheese flies, and hister beetles, to name a few--and what they do when they find a body. This also includes a description of parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs inside the larvae or pupae of flies.
Goff presents a history of forensic entomology, describes his own history and involvement in the field, and includes plenty of cases to demonstrate how valuable this discipline is to solving murders.
In my opinion, the good doctor waxes a bit too technical in places, but overall, the book was a good read and worth mucking through the scientific descriptions to get a better idea of what guys like Goff do.
More reading
The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell
Death's Acre by Dr. William Bass
Dr. Goff dives deep into the various species that visit the dead, and describes how they arrive in a very specific order and stay for a set amount of time. Maggots go through stages of development and leave behind evidence of their growth that an entomologist can use to determine how long a body has been exposed to insect activity.
This varies by location and weather, of course, and a local specialist is always best to use in cases where insect activity is investigated. Goff works in Hawaii and is very familiar with the species found locally. He consults with other entomologists when he takes a case stateside.
All effective forensic scientific investigation in the field requires photos, proper collection of evidence, preservation of that evidence, and analysis of the evidence and photos. Forensic entomologists also collect data on temperature and climate changes, as well as specimens from the body, under the body, and within 15 feet of the body. (Some larvae crawl away from the body when they are ready to transform into flies.)
All of this is described in great detail in A Fly for the Prosecution. In fact, squeamish readers might want to skim certain passages. There are long sections discussing the different types of bugs--blowflies, coffin flies, cheese flies, and hister beetles, to name a few--and what they do when they find a body. This also includes a description of parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs inside the larvae or pupae of flies.
Goff presents a history of forensic entomology, describes his own history and involvement in the field, and includes plenty of cases to demonstrate how valuable this discipline is to solving murders.
In my opinion, the good doctor waxes a bit too technical in places, but overall, the book was a good read and worth mucking through the scientific descriptions to get a better idea of what guys like Goff do.
More reading
The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell
Death's Acre by Dr. William Bass
February 14, 2012
“It was a perfect morning for shoreline fishing and throwing nets for crabs…” What a beginning! It gets better as Goff, an entomologist mixes science and journalism to tell how insects are used in forensics to solve crimes. With his audience in mind, Goff writes in plain English to make this a readable and gripping read. He describes actual experiences of visiting sites around Oahu to gather evidence for several cases. Many residents, who have been in Hawaii long enough, will be able to identify these cases, most of which graced the headlines of Honolulu’s papers.
August 29, 2013
Drank this book up in practically one sitting last weekend! A truly fascinating look at two fields I love: forensics and entomology. Goff covers both the theory behind forensic entomology and provides many criminal case studies as well as his own research with animal corpses. In addition, the last few chapters are devoted to personal and professional issues in the field, including how the leading professional forensic entomology organization was formed. Provided you're not squeamish, this is TOTALLY worth reading.
June 2, 2014
Just by accident my friend says to me that his anthropology teacher is going to Hawaii to study with a famous Professor who studies bugs and immediately I said wait and pull out this book from my shelf and said is it Lee Goff and to his surprise he said wow yeah! Then I began to tell him all the great details of this book and why it's a must read.
June 3, 2016
I only checked this out because I was curious what he would actually have to say about bugs and solving crimes. He gets a little in depth with the different types of flies/etc, which I don't think everyone would enjoy. I found it interesting but if you don't like reading about bugs and dead bodies, probably not for you.
December 6, 2009
Forensics book about insects and how you can use their life histories to establish time-of-death, etc. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they are totally into entomology. It was so dry and dull.
April 2, 2011
Fascinating account of how insect evidence helps solve crimes by a trailblazing forensic entomologist. He makes the most gross subject tolerable yet very interesting too. He has a good sense of humor. Thank goodness there are no corpses of all the maggot infested corpses!
September 4, 2020
封面設計特別有意思，內文好看又詳實，作者在描寫昆蟲活動時總是文筆特別生動，麻蠅像飛機轟炸一樣噴蛆、蛆如雨下、酪蠅的蛆抱尾把自己彈射到空中這幾個畫面我大概會記一輩子，黑色幽默可見一斑；但是隨手一翻頁就映入巨大一幅逼真的蠅蛆畫像倒是讓我有點受不了（。原來各種蠅的產卵條件和時間都還挺嚴格的，頗有「蘇州過後冇艇搭」的感覺，我原本還以為只要屍體開始腐爛就會源源不斷地吸引各色蝇蟲來啃食⋯⋯闔上書本感慨還好當年沒愣頭愣腦地偏要讀法醫專業，一想到蛆蟲爬到手上我就想把手都給砍掉x
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July 27, 2014Really good read for those into insects and what they can tell you.
February 21, 2008
This is my favorite book on forensic entomology. Written by one of the top experts in the field.
August 5, 2017
A Fly for the Prosecution is a fascinating glimpse into the world of secrets, told to the keen observer, by insects merely going about their lives at a crime scene.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews