Impeccably researched and vividly told, Fingerprints is a story packed with an extraordinary cast of individuals whose scientific breakthroughs helped solve one of the most brutal murders in English history and shaped our understanding of identity.
In 1905 an elderly couple were found murdered in their shop in Deptford, London. The only evidence at the scene of the crime was a sweaty fingerprint on a cashbox. Was it possible that a single fingerprint could be enough to lead to a conviction? Could the pattern of these tracks hold the secrets of the science of identification?
In the 1880s, Henry Faulds, a missionary in Japan, began to study the formation of the whorls, arches and loops on each finger and was the first to ask whether these traces could be the unique key to identifying every individual. Whilst police and scientists alike ignored Faulds' discovery, other thinkers were working on complex, alternative methods of identification.
Through the studies of Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin, the study of fingerprints became the recognised science of dactylography. Through these stories, Beavan recreates a gripping narrative of rivalry, detection and a fascinating portrait of the nineteenth-century race to find a scientific method of identification.

'Fascinating, informative and as gripping as a great crime novel.' Simon Singh, author of The Code Book

It's a bright October morning and Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is not due on shift for several hours. And then the phone rings. A woman is dead, suspected suicide. The dispatcher can't reveal the details: it's a Code 61. Something serious has happened over at the Mansion and he's not allowed to ask too many questions over the radio.
When Carl arrives at the huge, mysterious house isolated in the woodlands above the Mississippi, he can see why his colleagues are nervous. The young woman lying dead in the bath on the second floor happens to be Edie, the melancholy niece of Carl's boss, Sheriff Ridgeway, and she's tried to commit suicide before. But something about the body's vicious neck wounds tells Carl this case isn't going to be that simple.
As Carl and his feisty partner, FBI Special Agent Hester Gorse, delve deeper into the secrets of the Mansion and its young residents they uncover a terrifying mystery that will shock the Midwest.

Handsome, hip and rich-by-marriage, Philip Randall has it all: a career at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, a wife whose father showers her with every luxury, a loft in Soho and a beautiful mistress. Never mind that Jessica is also the wife of his best friend Connor - and that they have been married for less than a year. When an old acquaintance re-appears in his life with photographic proof of their affair, Philip is haunted by the threat of blackmail and exposure - yet refuses to accept that finally a situation has arisen that he is unable to turn to his advantage. Until that is, he finds himself at the centre of a murder investigation. Is the Up and Comer finally to receive his comeuppance?
As Philip tries to keep on top of everything, his life begins to unravel and soon he finds himself at the centre of a murder investigation.