Book Reviews

The Big ‘R’
A Forensic Accounting Action Adventure
Second Edition

By D. Larry Crumbley, Doug Ziegenfuss, John O’Shaughnessy
Although the anthrax scare is not new in novels, an educational novel entitled The Big R: A Forensic Accounting Action Adventure by three professors evolves around a series of heinous biological and chemical murders occurring every time there was a perfect game in baseball. The home run record by Barry Bonds is forgotten. Using sarin and other chemical and biological weapons, baseball is completely unprepared for the risk this season—major league murders in the stands. 

Crumbley is back with a psychological thriller that will make chills run down your spine. Crumbley, author of eleven other novels and aka Iris Weil Collett, has joined with Doug Ziegenfuss and John O’Shaughnessy to develop an educational novel for forensic accounting (FA).

The Big R: A Forensic Accounting Action Adventure is a supplementary book to be used near the end of a forensic accounting, an internal auditing (IA), an auditing, or fraud examination course. The novel could be used in a graduate investment class, also. This FA novel would be ideal for an MBA course or a finance course that has light coverage of accounting, or could be used in FA’s in-house training programs. An external auditor interested in outsourcing or co-sourcing an internal auditing function should read this book.

This instructional novel mixes baseball, forensic auditing, serial killers, fraud, risks, chemical and biological agents, and scuba diving to get a better way of learning forensic auditing. A certified internal auditor, a forensic accountant, and a FBI agent work together to find serial killers striking at baseball parks.  The killers are able to frame Milt Pappas, a former Chicago Cubs pitcher, as the person responsible for the terror. In 1972, Milt Pappas came within one out of pitching a perfect game, but according to Pappas, the umpire called at least two strikes balls, resulting in the 27th batter walking to first base. That umpire was killed in the novel.

So put on your baseball cap and pull on your baseball spikes. Enjoy the thrills, excitement, and humor of 17 unique events in baseball history as told to you in  exciting historical fiction. The plot is breathtaking as serial killers strike with impunity. Watch an FBI agent, an internal auditor of the New York Yankees, and a forensic accountant stalk the killers as baseball is traumatized by grizzly murders in various baseball parks.

D. Larry Crumbley, PhD, CPA is a frequent contributor to The Forensic Examiner, and he is a Certified Forensic Accountant (Cr.FA).
Beating the Devil’s Game: A History of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation

By Katherine Ramsland
The O.J. Simpson trial was not only a ground-breaking case for the justice system, but it garnered interest from the general public who were curious to learn more about how forensic science would discover whether or not O.J. was the perpetrator responsible for this sensationalized crime of passion.

Today, most people know from watching television that DNA analysis, fingerprinting, and taking impressions are the scientific precepts of crime solving, but there is much to be learned about the scientific process that goes into measuring evidence and how theory becomes proof in criminal investigations.

In Beating the Devil’s Game: A History of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation (Berkley Trade Hardcover, Publication Date: September 4, 2007; $24.95), Dr. Katherine Ramsland, one of the foremost educators in forensic science, traces the development of forensics from its earliest days in thirteenth-century China, when decomposition rates were studied, all the way through to the scientific marvels and innovations that came about during the era of Newtonian physics in the nineteenth century and what the future holds for the field.

Along the way, readers are introduced to fascinating characters who risked their careers and reputations in the pursuit to prove that there is no such thing as the perfect crime.

Dr. Katherine Ramsland’s multiple degrees include a master’s in forensic psychology. She is the author of more than two dozen books and currently teaches forensic psychology as an assistant professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. Visit her Web site at www.katherineramsland.com.