Tremors in the Blood

Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector

By: Amit Katwala

Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni

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, 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.

©2023 Amit Katwala (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Incredible Book

Anyone interested in writing a book that looks at history with a specific focus should read (and stud) this book. The research is meticulous and the book is incredible well-written. The author gives the perfect amount of time to the 3 men connected with the polygraph's early days, the machine itself, and two crimes in which the machine was used in those early days.

I thought the performance was also very well-done.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime, policing, the law and legal issues, and the politics involved in all of those issues. The epilogue is also one of the best I have ever read for a non-fiction book.