The Corpse's Secrets: Forensic Case Files from Jiangzhou

A woman battered by domestic abuse used the masonry skills her ex-husband had taught her to build a wall concealing a corpse.

A respectable doctor used the same technique he used to stitch wounds to seal a tool bag shut.

A father who had lost his son turned a boy into a skeleton in an air-raid shelter.

Lu Zheng, head of the major crimes unit in the criminal investigation division, handled the door-knocking. Policewoman Du Ruo saw through the lies. Trace evidence specialist Fang Che found the truth in fingerprint powder. And Song Zhiyan made the bodies speak.

This was a forensic lab with no superpowers. Fingerprints had to be matched one by one, DNA amplified round after round, and time of death inferred by cross-referencing insect succession with stomach contents. Every killer was an ordinary person, and every crime began with a crack torn open in everyday life.

When the ninth body arrived, Song Zhiyan took off his glasses and wiped the lenses three times. The marks on the body were identical to those his mentor had documented nine years ago.

“The conclusion comes after the incision.” He had believed that for nine years. Now he would use that scalpel to cut through the truth behind the “accident” from nine years ago, even if the killer had been waiting for him for ten years.