Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was a British author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science principles and methods to support legal decision-making in matters of criminal and civil law.
Michael Malloy, nicknamed Mike the Durable or Iron Mike, was a homeless Irishman from County Donegal who lived in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. A former firefighter and stationary engineer, he was murdered by a group of five acquaintances after multiple failed attempts on his life by the men to perpetrate life insurance fraud.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. She is the author of nine novels and a collection of essays. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the International Dublin IMPAC Award and The Orange Prize. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent novel, Absolution was awarded the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.
The CSI effect describes the various ways in which the exaggerated portrayal of forensic science on crime television shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation influences public perception. The term was first reported in a 2004 USA Today article describing the effect being made on trial jurors by television programs featuring forensic science.
Deborah Leigh Blum is an American science journalist and the director of the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of several books, including The Poisoner's Handbook (2010) and The Poison Squad (2018), and has been a columnist for The New York Times and a blogger, via her blog titled Elemental, for Wired.
A crime laboratory, often shortened to crime lab, is a scientific laboratory, using primarily forensic science for the purpose of examining evidence from criminal cases.
CSI is a media franchise of American television series created by Anthony E. Zuiker. The first three CSI series follow the work of forensic scientists as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious deaths, while the fourth series, CSI: Cyber, emphasizes behavioral psychology and how it can be applied to cyber forensics.
CSI: The Experience is a traveling exhibition about crime lab forensic science and technology inspired by the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
A procedural or procedural drama is a cross-genre type of literature, film, or television program which places emphasis on technical detail. A documentary film may also be written in a procedural style to heighten narrative interest.
Libby Fischer Hellmann is an American crime fiction writer who currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. Most of her novels and stories are set in Chicago; the Chicago Sun-Times notes that she "grew up in Washington, D.C., but she has embraced her adopted home of Chicago with the passion of a convert."
Mary Frances Creighton was an American woman convicted and executed for murder by poisoning. Creighton was nicknamed "The Long Island Borgia" and the "Black-Eyed Borgia by the press, because of her use of arsenic poisoning. She was sentenced to death by electric chair. She passed out before the execution, and was executed in an unconscious state.
Charles Norris was New York's first appointed chief medical examiner (1918–1935) and pioneer of forensic toxicology in America.
Alexander Oscar Gettler was a toxicologist with the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York (OCME) between 1918 and 1959, and the first forensic chemist to be employed in this capacity by a U.S. city. His work at OCME with Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner, created the foundation for modern medicolegal investigation in the U.S. and Gettler has been described by peers as "the father of forensic toxicology in America."
Dr. Leo A. Dal Cortivo, a forensic toxicologist was the Chief Toxicologist and Director of Forensic Science Laboratories in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, from 1960 through 1990.
The Gettler Boys were a group of toxicologists who studied under or worked with Alexander Gettler, the "father of forensic toxicology in America." They included Irving Sunshine, Arthur Tiber, Abraham Friereich and Henry Freimuth. Many Gettler Boys went on to become prominent toxicologists in their own right.
Joseph Thomas Walker was a pioneer in forensic science. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University in 1933. In 1934, he created the Massachusetts State Police Chemical Laboratory, the first statewide crime detection lab in the country, and later, the Chemical Laboratories of the Department of Public Safety, which he ran until his death. During that time, Walker developed many of the scientific techniques utilized in modern crime detection. His eulogy in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology states "Throughout the world his methods are used, his name is known, and all men benefit." Lawyer-turned-mystery-writer Erle Stanley Gardner dedicated the foreword to one of his books to Walker and commented, upon hearing of his death, that Walker was "the greatest real life detective he had known."
Glen Weldon is an American writer, cultural critic, and podcaster. He has written for publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, and McSweeney's. Weldon currently writes for the NPR Arts Desk and is a panelist on the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Agatha of Little Neon is a 2021 literary fiction novel by American author Claire Luchette. Agatha of Little Neon was praised upon its debut and was included in several best of 2021 lists.
