#ReadThis #THEFOREVERWITNESS by #EdwardHumes @edwardhumes @DuttonBooks @penguinusa
We've published over 900 book reviews since our inception.
We've considered far more.
As with all other disciplines, we only publish when we are impressed and we are here in a big way from a source so small it's amazing: DNA.
In terms of non-fiction recently, Princeton University Press's Economic books, Harvard Business Books and bien sur Jacques Pepin are the only ones that have been competitive with this one.
The Forever Witness is entirely captivating and totally engrossing and the scientific developments of DNA should interest you immensely. For all enthusiasts of Dateline, 48 Hours and shows like them, The Forever Witness is just as good if not better as it is written at such a high level. However, it's not such a high level that you will have to constantly look up terms. It's enjoyable and develops at a good pace.
You only need to look at our beaucoup de reviews of Agatha Christie and David Baldacci to see we want a good mystery...but wasn't it the old Liz Claiborne ad that said reality is the best fantasy of all?
For all lovers of history, antiques and anything that might tell a story, DNA and how it can tell a story is entirely fascinating and its ability to clarify and determine in criminal cases is increasingly amazing. Especially as crime has gone up in our beloved Manhattan due to highly unfortunate people in office whom we did not vote for, we are increasingly concerned with crime in all areas. And we always are concerned with justice and the truth (thank you Elon Musk and Twitter.)
In 1987, it was an era without cell phones and without the internet as we know it. However, the foresight of law enforcement and thorough documentation of crime scenes make telling a true story possible over time and the expertise of CeCe Moore is also engrossing. (All cool people love puzzles.) We won't give away the whole plot of the book! From the playing cards to the excellent work by Jim Scharf to ultimately the pen of Edward Humes, The Forever Witness sets forth a new era for crime solving to be done expediently and expeditiously like it never has been before.
The story of the development of the DNA database will intrigue you and will be a source of constant discussion if you are in a book group. We adore the David Copperfield reference on page 222...UH is the pure definition of revolting.
We will warn you: collectively, we agree this will keep you up at night so we suggest starting it in the morning so you can finish before you sleep. You absolutely will not be able to put it down.
The Forever Witness is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
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In 1987, a young Canadian couple on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, their bodies were found, one strangled, the other shot. It was a brutal crime and a perfect crime. An international manhunt never found a suspect, and eventually the murders that stunned the Pacific Northwest slipped from the headlines. Three decades later, a dogged detective revived the case, teaming up with an actress-turned-genealogist to find the killer. They wielded a new forensic tool, built not in police labs but from home DNA tests popular with family tree hobbyists. Could they solve the Pacific Northwest’s most enduring mystery and make history with the first murder trial based on genetic genealogy? And if so, at what cost?
This is the jumping-off point of THE FOREVER WITNESS: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder (Dutton; November 29, 2022), a true crime thriller set on the fragile line between justice and privacy. It begins with the 1987 disappearances of 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook. Cold case detective Jim Scharf spent years on the dead-end case, then found genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who turned her uncanny skill at using home DNA kits to ID foundlings and adoptees’ birth families to a new hunt: targeting killers. She solved Tanya and Jay’s murder two hours after joining the case.
THE FOREVER WITNESS takes readers inside the hidden world of genetic genealogy, where ancestry sleuths can track someone down even if that person’s individual DNA was never tested. No killer can elude this unregulated science—nor anyone else, should it be misused. More than 40 million Americans have blithely made their DNA searchable—for fun—through sites like 23andMe and Ancestry.com. But how effective are current privacy safeguards once our DNA is out in the world? Can this powerful tool remain a force for good alone? Or does crossing this bridge risk giving up the last vestiges of privacy in the digital age—control over the very blueprint of who we are?
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Edward Humes digs into these questions and more in his essential new book about the killings at the heart of the genetic genealogy revolution. Humes, who won the Pulitzer for reporting on the military and a PEN Award for his juvenile court book, No Matter How Loud I Shout, has written numerous critically acclaimed nonfiction works. His last, Burned, which the Washington Post called “riveting…powerful,” helped free a woman in 2021 after she spent decades behind bars because of flawed forensic science.
In THE FOREVER WITNESS, Humes masterfully blends true crime and investigative reporting into a page-turning account of Tanya and Jay’s disappearance, the ground-breaking investigation and trial that followed, and the quirky, gifted cold case detective who never gave up. At the same time, Humes chronicles the rise of genetic genealogy, its enormous benefits and risks, and the long refusal of forensic scientists to accept that amateur genealogists like Moore could solve cases that had stumped pros. While the case has been covered by the likes of The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, Humes’ reporting on this vital story is the most in-depth yet, an inside account of not just the crime, but the dawn of a new age of DNA-based crimefighting powered by volunteers, hobbyists, and citizen scientists. Today, police welcome the breakthrough and what it could mean for the 200,000 unsolved murders on the books. But Humes tells another side of the story, too: how genetic genealogy can lead to a slippery slope. The same unregulated methods that put Tanya and Jay’s killer behind bars can also threaten the privacy and security of us all.
Through extensive interviews, testimony, and police files, THE FOREVER WITNESS paints unforgettable portraits of the victims and their families, as well as new revelations about the man charged with the murders, William Earl Talbott II. Humes digs deep into the memorable character of Snohomish County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Scharf – a cop for the ages, who has arrested one violent criminal after another in more than forty years on the job, yet never fired his weapon in the field. And there’s CeCe Moore, citizen scientist and cold case savant, who went from forensic outcast to national treasure after solving an incredible 175 crimes with genetic genealogy—with more in the works. She isn’t alone: The Golden State Killer was found with genetic genealogy, and use of this investigative tool is expanding rapidly, even as attempts to create laws that balance public safety with personal privacy are only just getting started.
With THE FOREVER WITNESS, Humes has delivered a must-read in an era of diminished privacy, rampant identify theft, and ever-more powerful DNA databases. It’s a haunting, dramatic, and compulsive read for true crime lovers and anyone interested in how we can use our collective resources to solve cold cases and bring closure to victims and their families.
About Edward Humes
Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author whose fifteen previous books include Burned, Mississippi Mud, and the PEN Award-winning No Matter How Loud I Shout. He lives in Southern California.
The Forever Witness
How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder
Edward Humes
Dutton | November 29, 2022 | ISBN: 9781524746278
Also available as an eBook and an audiobook
www.edwardhumes.com | Twitter: @edwardhumes
About Dutton
Dutton is an imprint of the internationally renowned Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher. Dutton is home to many bestselling and award-winning fiction and nonfiction authors such as Sean Carroll, Robyn Crawford, Abi Daré, Fiona Davis, Eric Jerome Dickey, Joseph Finder, Lisa Gardner, Steven M. Gillon, Hank Green, Tami Hoag, Andre Iguodala, Jonathan Karl, Alex Kershaw, Denise Kiernan, Bernice McFadden, Jason Mott, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Mark Owen, Riley Sager, Adriana Trigiani, Jonathan Tropper, Jeff Tweedy, Craig Unger, and Carl Zimmer, among others. Penguin Random House is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere.
