Books by Michael Kurland

Lord Darcy and Master Wizard Sean O Lauchlainn return in this authorized sequel to the stories of Randall Garrett. In 1988, in an alternate universe in which the Plantagenets still rule Britain, France, and the New World, and where magic has displaced science, King John IV's chief detectives are called in to investigate a series of impossible murders of accomplished sorcerers. As the bodies pile up, and the monarch himself is threatened, Darcy and Sean must race against the clock to find the killer before the political balance of Europe is upset. Great fantasy (and mystery) adventure!

A furtive tipster gives nightclub columnist Alexander Brass an envelope filled with photographs of several powerful people caught in compromising sexual positions. Intrigued, Brass sends a newspaper stringer to follow the mystery man. When the stringer is murdered, Brass and his team resolve to find the killer.

Blue blood is flowing in London as a killer slits the throats of the cream of England's aristocracy. Naturally Scotland Yard enlists the great Sherlock Holmes himself. Only when this ultimate weapon of the law failed to stem the deaths are they forced to play a last desperate card - Professor James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime.

Moriarty is awaiting trial for murder when Queen Victoria's grandson mysteriously disappears. In exchange for his release and the murder charges (of which he's innocent) being dropped, the so-called "Napoleon of Crime" must track down the missing prince and find out who is behind his disappearance and the brutal murders left in his wake.

When American journalist Benjamin Barrett is sent to Constantinople to report on the sea trials of a new submarine, the assignment soon becomes more eventful than he had predicted, particularly after rescuing a certain professor from an attack...

The rise of scientific thinking in finding, catching, and convicting criminals-and, just as important, freeing the innocent-has transformed society's assault on crime. Before scientific detective work, early attempts to maintain public safety relied on the severity of punishment rather than any probability of apprehension. But with the rapid development of the sciences in the nineteenth century, some techniques began to spill over into more effective police work. Michael Kurland's engrossing history of forensic science recounts this remarkable progress, which continues to the present. He traces the history of the major techniques of criminal detection and many of the minor ones. Here are Bertillon's physical measurements used to recognize habitual criminals; the study of fingerprints identifying criminals long after they have left the scene of the crime; Gravelle's comparison microscope comparing bullets to determine if they have been fired from the same gun; the development of bloodstain identification and, ultimately, the blood type involved. Mr. Kurland explains how once-accepted techniques have fallen by the wayside-handwriting analysis, for example-and how methods such as lie detectors, voice spectrum analysis, bite mark evidence, and other methods have proven unworthy. Finally Irrefutable Evidence explores the rise of modern DNA typing techniques, which have proven the innocence of many persons convicted of major crimes and resulted in the exoneration of more than two hundred on death row. With 12 black-and-white illustrations.