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An Expert Witness
  • Published: 13 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529960884
  • Imprint: Doubleday
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 388
  • RRP: $40.00

An Expert Witness

Forensic Science on Trial

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
13 Oct 2026
EBook
2 July 2026
Audiobook
2 July 2026
Hardback
2 Aug 2026
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From Britain’s best-known forensic scientist, a book that explains what forensic science is, how it evolved and, through a series of landmark cases, the shocking truth about where it is headed.

The relationship between law enforcement, science and the legal system is a complicated one. When it works well, it makes compelling television. Equally, when it does not work well, it makes for compelling and explosive news headlines.

In The Life and Death of Forensic Science, pioneering forensic scientist, anatomist and forensic anthropologist Sue Black puts the relationship between these different institutions, and how they are all impacted by the role of the expert witness, under the microscope.

Through shocking landmark cases that expose both the strengths and weaknesses of the interconnection between the three key players in this act – the investigator, the scientist and the lawyer - she probes: In which cases did we get it right? In which did we get it wrong? And if we had done it differently, might the pendulum of justice have swung another way?

Incisive and compelling, following the impact of advances in technology to changes in funding and the effect of our gladiatorial system, Professor Dame Sue Black tracks the journey of this most intriguing of sciences through to its inevitable conclusion - and the toll it may take not only on experts but ultimately how justice plays out.
  • Published: 13 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529960884
  • Imprint: Doubleday
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 388
  • RRP: $40.00
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About the author

Sue Black

Professor Lady Sue Black is one of the world’s leading anatomists and forensic anthropologists. She is President of St John’s College, Oxford and previously Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She was the lead anthropologist for the British Forensic Team in the war crimes investigations in Kosovo, and one of the first forensic scientists to travel to Thailand following the Indian Ocean tsunami. Sue was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to forensic anthropology and is a Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. She is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Sunday Times bestsellers All That Remains and Written in Bone. Her new book, An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial is published in 2026.
SB

Also by Sue Black

Written In Bone
All That Remains
Saving Bletchley Park
See all

Praise for An Expert Witness

A candid and unsettling insight into the criminal justice system and how it really works.

New Scientist (Book of the Week)

Sometimes I feel ashamed of the unwholesome interest I have in Sue Black's work, but mostly the shame is overwhelmed by my awe for the difference a magnificent human being can make, furthering science for the cause of truth, decency and justice . . . it is Black's fierce moral mission that makes sense of everything she does . . . tremendous feeling for the vulnerable flashes through An Expert Witness . . . The first half of the book is cogently argued, but . . . the book comes to life when Black is at her most outraged.

Helen Rumbelow, The Times

Superb . . . full of fascinating insights . . . Black is a very likeable narrator.

Mark Mason, Daily Mail