Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner

This was a good read. I suspect that when it was first published it was far more informative than now. The public has had a lot of time to ponder forensics in the over a dozen years. Still, I enjoyed reading it.The reasons I only gave it four stars are two. Although grammar has relaxed considerably, I dislike hearing "more important" instead of "more importantly" especially more than once. My second issue with the book is simply that the doctor's high opinion of himself is obvious a little more than necessary. He is a talented and highly trained professional and one would assume that self-confidence would be necessary to have achieved that. Yet a little more humility would have improved my reading experience.

I am not alone in being fascinated with true crime books and television. This book provides interesting discussions of cases and how clues about murders were extracted from studies of the bodies and the crime sites. The good doctor/author kept the technical discussions at just the right level for the interested but unskilled reader.

It was one of the most interesting and readable books on a topic, (forensic pathology) that I didn't think I would be interested in reading. I makes recent history come to life, i.e. Chauvin trial, and makes you want to know more. BTW, I am a fan of Mary Roach whose book Stiff I also enjoyed but this book tops her book.

Dr. Zugibe is obviously well respected in his field, and this book answered a few questions for me on the subject of how the human body reacts to death. However, the details became cumbersome in the last chapters, especially on the mystery of Jon Bonett , the O.J. Simpson trial, and the crucifixion of Christ, which was particularly disturbing. However, I did finish the book, although I decided I really didn't need to know so much about death and dying.

I'm a nurse and have always been interested in forensic medicine. I found this book to be very interesting and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned quite a bit, which is interesting since I was a hospice nurse for awhile.

This was interesting, but I still couldn't "connect" with the book. Obviously written with medical expertise but still at times it seemed to bog down. I found myself wanting to skip through certain parts. This is something I picked up while reading several other books at the same time. I was unable to give it my total attention.

Had my doubts, but this book IS quite good AND informative. Even better than the TV versions because you know it's true. It isn't nearly as gruesome or "high-brow" scientific as you might think. Worry not! It's very interesting.

I used this book for information as to how forensic scientists conducted an investigation. The cases used as a foundation were insightful and interesting.

A book about a subject which may be morbid, but you never get that feeling because of how interesting it truly is.

A little dull

I am very interested in forensic science, especially being a medical professional. He makes some pretty dry material really interesting and easy to read.

This book satisfied my interest in this field being intelligently written with wry humour at appropriate times as well as giving laymen termed details of forensic methods and tools. Thank God there are people like the author whose sense of the need to continue for the sake of justice overcomes the incredible sadness and depth of depravity that they must witness in these kinds of cases

I've read several books on forensic investigation but not by a coroner. This uniquely informed depiction is vastly superior yet written in such a manner as to be eadily understood by readers.