Ted Botha gives us the interesting and somewhat quirky story of Frank Bender. It is the history of Bender's education and success in the world of forensic artistry. The book, aside from Bender's personal journey, outlines many cases and shows how cooperation, or lack of it, can really impact criminal investigation. Most interesting is Bender's journey to Mexico, at the request of profiling superstar Robert Ressler. Brought to the country to aid in the investigation of feminicidos in Chihuahua Bender has to re-examine how his work impacts various communities as well as face the harsh reality that the Mexican government may not actually be interested in solving the murders.

This book does leave some question unanswered and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I would say that this is a good introduction if you are interested in learning about forensics. It is not heavy with scientific language or technical terms, which makes this a quick read.

I read "The Murder Room" by Michael Capuzzo a few months ago. That book also featured Frank Bender, among other characters, and there was a lot of overlap in information about Bender and the cases he worked. I found it somewhat redundant but as "The Girl with Crooked Nose" focuses on Bender, I did get a more in depth look into his life and work.