Published in 2024
11 hours and 42 minutes
Professor Patricia Wiltshire has worked on over 300 criminal cases across the UK, including some of the highest-profile cases of the past 25 years, such as the Soham murders and the cases of Millie Dowler and Sarah Payne, providing critical forensic expertise that has been instrumental in solving these cases.
A leading voice in forensic ecology, Professor Wiltshire has worked with every police force in the UK. Her expertise is sought worldwide.
Professor Wiltshire studied botany at King’s College London and later returned to lecture in microbial and general ecology. She is also associated with esteemed organizations such as the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society. She lives in Surrey.
What is this book about?
Professor Patricia Wiltshire is a forensic ecologist, her days spent at crime scenes collecting samples, standing over dead bodies in a mortuary, or looking down her microscope for evidence.
Working at the interface of where the criminal and natural world interact, Patricia has been involved in some of the most high-profile murder cases. Now, through a study of her most infamous, and fascinating cases – including the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman – Patricia will show us how she finds the answers to some of the worst crimes imaginable. Not only does she help the police solve crimes and give answers to the most bemusing circumstances, she can help to exonerate the innocent and enable confessions from the guilty.
In The Natural History of Crime we join Patricia in putting the puzzle together, teasing the evidence out of her cases and showing us all how life and death have always been, and always will be, intertwined. Nature has given us a messy, imperfect world, but her job is to help make sense of it when we need it to most.
