Join a book club that is reading Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector!
Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector
BEWARE WHAT YOU BELIEVE: This “rollicking true crime” story reveals the surprising origins of the lie detector through shocking murders and dramatic trials (WIRED).
“Everything a reader wants in a true crime book—murder, mystery, gunfights, courtroom theatrics and dogged police work.” —Deborah Blum, bestselling author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Late one evening in the summer of 1922, Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife’s blood. But was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who conspired with bandits to have her murdered?
To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman’s touch.
John Larson, Gus Vollmer and Leonarde Keeler hoped the lie detector would make the justice system fairer – but the flawed device soon grew too powerful for them to control. It poisoned their lives, turned fast friends into bitter enemies, and as it conquered America and the world, it transformed our relationship with the truth in ways that are still being felt.
As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behind the creation of the polygraph, through gripping true crime cases featuring explosive gunfights, shocking twists and high-stakes courtroom drama.
Touching on psychology, technology and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller, and a warning from history: beware what you believe.
“Everything a reader wants in a true crime book—murder, mystery, gunfights, courtroom theatrics and dogged police work.” —Deborah Blum, bestselling author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Late one evening in the summer of 1922, Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife’s blood. But was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who conspired with bandits to have her murdered?
To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman’s touch.
John Larson, Gus Vollmer and Leonarde Keeler hoped the lie detector would make the justice system fairer – but the flawed device soon grew too powerful for them to control. It poisoned their lives, turned fast friends into bitter enemies, and as it conquered America and the world, it transformed our relationship with the truth in ways that are still being felt.
As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behind the creation of the polygraph, through gripping true crime cases featuring explosive gunfights, shocking twists and high-stakes courtroom drama.
Touching on psychology, technology and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller, and a warning from history: beware what you believe.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
I really enjoyed this book! Such an interesting look at the justice system and media in addition to the evolution of the lie detector. Some minor editing/writing complaints, but overall an engaging read.
Writer Amit Katwala published Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector in 2023. The book is a history of pseudoscientific deception, specifically the polygraph. The book focuses on the two inventors of the polygraph, John Larson and Leorande Keeler. The third important person in the invention of the polymath was August Vollmer, the police chief of Berkeley, California. The trio briefly worked together at the Chicago Police Department. Vollmer and Keeler worked together at the Los Angeles Police Department. The book follows two murder cases in which the polygraph was used and failed to help solve the cases. In the case of the murder of Max Dent, the use of the polygraph had deadly consequences for the accused person in the case. I found this book, "Tremors in the Blood," helpful for reading Historian Jill Lepore’s biography of William Moulton Marston, who created the character of Wonder Woman. Marston also briefly appears in Katwala’s Tremors in the Blood because Marston worked on an early version of the polygraph. In the “Coda” (Katwala 295-304) of Tremors of the Blood, Katwala covers how the search for the pseudoscientific lie detector since the work of Larson and Keeler has continued, and the dangers of that search to society. I agree with Goodreads reviewer, David Cohen, that Katwala’s book is written in tabloid newspaper style; that being said, Katwala did his research for Tremors in the Blood. The book has a “Note on Sources” (Katwala 307-310), which includes a selected bibliography. The book has a section on references. The book has illustrations. Katwala’s book, Tremors in the Blood, is a well-researched and readable non-fiction book. I found the Goodreads review by David Cohen helpful in writing this ‘review.’
Works Cited:
Lepore, Jill. 2015. The Secret History of Wonder Woman. New York: Penguin Random House, LLC. Kindle.
Listened to it while reading; not sure if it was the narrator or the book itself but it was quite slow and hard to follow. Wish that it was more about the machine itself than stories around it.
The book is more about the crimes, rather than the detector machine itself.
The writer needed a good editor as each chapter jumped all over the place and it was rather difficult to follow.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.