Critical Mick

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Cracking Crime: Jim Donovan - Forensic Detective
by Niamh O'Connor
The O'Brien Press, 2001

CSIreland

Time to feature another title that- like The Elvis Sightings or A Book about a Thousand Things- has held a long-term lease on Mick Halpin's bookshelf. 2001's Cracking Crime: Jim Donovan - Forensic Detective was one of the first Irish true-crime tomes that I picked up after Paul Williams gave me a taste for the genre.

Before the telly had CSI, Ireland had Jim Donovan. For more than thirty years, Jim Donovan served as the country's top forensic scientist. This involved lots of time peering at fibers through microscopes: forensic science is the field which examines chemical evidence, bodily fluids, drugs, paint chips and other material which can prove whether a suspect was doing nasty things in a specific location. (This is not to be confused with all that gory Patricia Cornwall action: the science of examining human remains is Forensic Pathology. Professor John Harbison served as the State Pathologist for many of Jim Donovan's years, and contributed a preface to Cracking Crime).

Cracking Crime gives a conversational overview of many of the cases that Donovan's services contributred to solving. The account begins with four chapters on the notorious Martin Cahill and Donovan's damning evidence against him. Cahill's gang responded with a car bomb which left Donovan crippled for life, but could not stop him from working. Niamh O'Connor's book covers the foundation of the Forensic Science Laboratory in 1975 and Donovan's directorship of it through his retirement in 2002. (It is now headed by Dr. Sheila Willis). Brief descriptions of many of Ireland's major crimes over those years- the spree of bank robberies in the 1970's and 80's, the IRA bombing of Lord Mountbatten's boat, the rise of drug barons- are given, along with details on how gunpowder residue, blood typing, apple cores and shoeprints closed their cases. The book also discuses pseudo-sciences like phrenology, inexact sciences like profiling and forensics' impact of everything from the Lindbergh kidnapping to the OJ Simpson trial. Though space limitations prevent exploring each topic and incident in depth, these segments provide a decent overview of both forensics and the criminal history of modern Ireland. Cracking Crime is a much better introduction to the reality of the Irish situation than Terry Prone's melodramatic Irish Murders: The Shocking True Stories. (While slamming other works of Irish crime: the character Detective Superintendent Jim Clarke Paul Carson's 1999 novel Cold Steel seems to be a fictionalized Jim Donovan. It didn't work for me, though I am a narky overly-critical punk.)

Cracking Crime is one of the signed books that Critical Mick hopes to auction in aid of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland. Click for details!

In 2002, Jim Donovan and Niamh O'Connor spoke at the Crime Writing Uncovered event held by Fingal County Council. Brian Gallagher and Julie Parsons also delivered excellent talks, but Dr. Donovan's multimedia presentation has proven most memorable. (Huh! Ireland's last "murder by poisioning" trial took place in 1961, from TV dramas the impression is that arsenic gets uncorked all the time!) Afterward, I asked him if he read crime fiction himself, and what authors he considered "got it right."

Dr. Donovan replied with Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Arthur Conan Doyle. He prefers fiction as far removed from his everyday reality as possible.

Zombentino!!!

Critical Mick says: The State's top handwriting experts can confirm that both Jim Donovan and Niamh O'Connor signed my copy of Cracking Crime. It's a personal connection to the world introduced by the book, a personal connection that you can make yours. In February 2009 this and five other signed titles from Mick Halpin's bookshelf will be auctioned on ebay.ie, with all proceeds to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

Zombentino!!!

Additional Images:

1. The cover and spine - very good condition. (119 kb)

2. I am not familiar with the way that O'Brien Press formats their printing information: every publisher seems to have their own variation. Though an interested party will have to verify it themselves, I believe the information here indicates that mine is a first edition: neither "1" nor "01" has been dropped from the string of numbers, and I bought the book right around the time it was released. (184 kb)

3. All six books auctioned for ASI, 2009 (413 kb)

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2008 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 28 January, 2009.