Originally published in February 2021, 50 Situations was made possible—or at least accelerated—by the COVID-19 pandemic. As society began shutting down, I found an opportunity to indulge an idea I had been contemplating for several months after an especially meaningful coaching session. My client, a DNA technical leader, was grappling with a challenging situation that I too had encountered during my own career. Reflecting on that conversation during the early months of 2020, I envisioned a professional handbook that would describe high-stakes situations forensic scientists often face—and offer guidance on navigating them with integrity and savvy.

Affordability was a major goal. Forensic science books tend to be expensive because they serve a specialized market and are often released through publishing houses that charge inflated prices. This was a problem I faced with my first two books, both released under the Academic Press imprint, where I had no control over pricing. Both were priced over $100, effectively targeting institutions in the marketplace, such as forensic laboratories and universities, rather than individuals. I wanted my third book to be one that I myself would have bought as a young forensic scientist starting out more than 30 years ago.

What I didn’t expect was that a small contingent of professors in collegiate forensic programs would begin assigning 50 Situations as required reading. I’ve been especially grateful to my friend and colleague Pam Marshall at Duquesne University, who not only adopted the book for her course but also invited me to speak with her students last year. That experience—meeting young people whose career journeys were shaped in part by reading my work—was unforgettable.

Shortly afterward, I contacted Pam to let her know I was considering a second edition, and I asked if she would honor me by writing a back-cover testimonial, which she did. It only seemed fitting: her feedback and encouragement had been a key source of inspiration from the beginning. But I was also inspired by a heartfelt email I received from a concerned latent print examiner who was confronted by a serious situation that I hadn’t covered in the original book. She told me of a conference she attended where an attorney gave an impassioned presentation, railing against forensic scientists and arguing that flawed or invalid forensic results were a leading cause of erroneous convictions. She was left aghast and wanted some advice on how to contend with such a serious accusation if she were to ever encounter it in her professional environment.

This was a subject I knew well, having confronted similar accusations two decades earlier—an experience that culminated in my second book, Crime Lab Report. Yet that book, like my earlier work, was an expensive, academically oriented publication. I wanted a more accessible resource for everyday practitioners.

With these experiences fresh in mind, and armed with new ideas for enhancing the book’s impact, I released the second edition of 50 Situations in December 2024. The paperback was quickly followed by the audiobook, with both versions priced affordably—under twenty dollars. I now provide copies to participants in my Advanced Expert Witnessing workshop, ensuring accessibility for the next generation of forensic professionals.