A police detective struggles to outwit a twisted killer in this “breathless” crime novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Undercurrents (Chicago Tribune). Carmel, California is a scenic, peaceful tourist haven where James Dewitt is the police force’s only detective. His usual caseload is stolen bicycles and the occasional burglary—but things are about to change with frightening speed. A series of apparent suicides—which soon prove to be murders—shocks the community. Dewitt, a former forensic scientist, struggles with the smallest of clues in his quest for the killer, while departmental turf wars and local politics increase the pressures on his investigation. His steps are further dogged by renegade ex-cop Howard Lumbrowski—the man Dewitt blames for his wife’s death. How is Lumbrowski connected to the killings? And why does he have information from Dewitt’s confidential files? Dewitt finds himself playing a dangerous game, breaking his own rules in a desperate search for answers . . . “A natural storyteller . . . He keeps the thread going, twisting the details . . . Dancing the forensic shuffle without missing a step.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.

American crime fiction has developed into writing that has a commitment to democracy and the democratic way of life, a compassion and empathy and a style which has created a significant branch of American literature.

Eyewitnesses play an important role in criminal cases when they can identify culprits. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands of eyewitnesses make identifications in criminal investigations each year. Research on factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness identification procedures has given us an increasingly clear picture of how identifications are made, and more importantly, an improved understanding of the principled limits on vision and memory that can lead to failure of identification. Factors such as viewing conditions, duress, elevated emotions, and biases influence the visual perception experience. Perceptual experiences are stored by a system of memory that is highly malleable and continuously evolving, neither retaining nor divulging content in an informational vacuum. As such, the fidelity of our memories to actual events may be compromised by many factors at all stages of processing, from encoding to storage and retrieval. Unknown to the individual, memories are forgotten, reconstructed, updated, and distorted. Complicating the process further, policies governing law enforcement procedures for conducting and recording identifications are not standard, and policies and practices to address the issue of misidentification vary widely. These limitations can produce mistaken identifications with significant consequences. What can we do to make certain that eyewitness identification convicts the guilty and exonerates the innocent? Identifying the Culprit makes the case that better data collection and research on eyewitness identification, new law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering line-ups, and improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification in court can increase the chances that accurate identifications are made. This report explains the science that has emerged during the past 30 years on eyewitness identifications and identifies best practices in eyewitness procedures for the law enforcement community and in the presentation of eyewitness evidence in the courtroom. In order to continue the advancement of eyewitness identification research, the report recommends a focused research agenda. Identifying the Culprit will be an essential resource to assist the law enforcement and legal communities as they seek to understand the value and the limitations of eyewitness identification and make improvements to procedures.