Teasing Secrets from the Dead: My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes, by Emily Craig, Ph.D.

Retrieved from: the library
(1400049229), 2004
Suggested by: Came through for me to catalog...
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 9 Interest, 8 Fun

If the subject of maggots grosses you out, don't read this. If clinical commentary on how bones connect to one another bores you, don't read this. If you think CSI and the other forensics shows on TV are relatively accurate, don't read this.

If, however, you really want to know what it's like to be in charge of a "maggot motel" or that a body that has been laying in the woods for awhile looks like chocolate pudding with some vomit mixed in, then this book will intrigue you. I loved it (well, I didn't love the maggot parts, but neither does Craig). She was involved in the identification of victims in Waco, Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center disasters, along with her regular duties as a forensic anthropologist in the commonwealth of Kentucky.

She manages to make the subject accessible to lay readers--those without medical or criminology degrees--without dumbing the subject down to inanity. And, because I read far too many of these sorts of books, I recognized several of the names she dropped as leaders in the field. I've read their books over the years as well.

I would not want this woman's job, but it is good that someone like her is doing this job, and is able and willing to tell the rest of us about it.