What caused the five mass extinctions evidenced by Earth's geologic record? How human was the behavior of our Neanderthal ancestors? Who kidnapped Charles Lindbergh's infant son in what has been called "the crime of the twentieth century," and how could that perpetrator be found? Who or what was responsible for the crash of a small plane in Ruidoso, New Mexico in 1989, a question that became the basis for an important civil suit? In PLANTS AND CRIME, botanist Alan Graham describes key forms of plant evidence and explains how plant residues from seeds to wood have been used to answer those and other compelling questions. PLANTS AND CRIME also introduces Graham's fictional detective, John Ramming of St. Louis's Division of Criminal Investigation Services, the protagonist of Dr. Graham's mystery novels GATEWAY TO MURDER, SEASON OF DISCONTENT, and MASS EXTINCTIONS. Readable singly or together, the three novels and this companion volume offer a unique, informative, and entertaining perspective on botany and the often-surprising uses to which it can be put.