wilhelmina_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Extremely interesting and informative, and in my opinion refreshingly unexploitative, which is unusual for true crime type books.
linyarai's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
manadabomb's review against another edition
3.0
This book coins itself as secrets of a medical examiner. If you like CSI (and you can read) you'll probably really like this book. It's not flashy with lots of weird angles like CSI but it's well written and plain spoken about the life of a medical examiner.
Looking up the good doctor, I see he is very well known for his research on crucifixion. That explains why the last section of the book explains why Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ (or whatever) was medically incorrect.
Zugibe goes over 10 cases that show various points of the forensic field. One case involves a woman found slashed and stabbed in the woods and they must determine time of death; apparently a very tricky thing to do despite what the tv shows say. Another case provides them with a few bones found in a grave, along with pieces of material, and they must determine if it could be a missing reporter.
Zugibe explains in plain English DNA testing, bone testing, insect forensics, etc. All very interesting and, dare I say, educational.
Looking up the good doctor, I see he is very well known for his research on crucifixion. That explains why the last section of the book explains why Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ (or whatever) was medically incorrect.
Zugibe goes over 10 cases that show various points of the forensic field. One case involves a woman found slashed and stabbed in the woods and they must determine time of death; apparently a very tricky thing to do despite what the tv shows say. Another case provides them with a few bones found in a grave, along with pieces of material, and they must determine if it could be a missing reporter.
Zugibe explains in plain English DNA testing, bone testing, insect forensics, etc. All very interesting and, dare I say, educational.
leilaniann's review against another edition
3.0
This book consists of case studies of several different deaths that one of the country's top medical examiners has worked on. It was amazingly detailed in it's explanations about all different aspects of crime scene investigations. The medical science nerd in me thought it was intriguing and beautiful. BUT the problem with it is that he weaves in his opinions about each of the examples, and I was sooo surprised to find that one of the cases he worked on was the famous brink's robbery involving the BLA and Weather Underground. His research looked at who fired the fateful shots that ended up putting David Gilbert, Samuel Brown and Kawasi Balagoon in prison. SO CRAZY to randomly come across that. It would have been 5 stars for the information, but damn...I wish it had been all fact, no opinion.
melissa_reads's review against another edition
5.0
A scientifically accurate CSI. I loved it. I'd gladly read more!
morbidanatomy's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
3.0
finished it in a day so clearly, my attention was grabbed, but if I hadn’t seen this in a thrift store and if it didn’t have a recommendation from mary roach (author of stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers, a book I thoroughly enjoyed) on the cover I probably wouldn’t have gotten it and considering the amount of copaganda and the writers racial and political biases coming through on a few cases I do not recommend you buy this new and if you are interested in the information there might be better books out there on the same subject or buy it secondhand like me
also there’s some crime scene photos so if you’re sensitive to seeing dead bodies you’ve been warned
also there’s some crime scene photos so if you’re sensitive to seeing dead bodies you’ve been warned
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Police brutality, Torture, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, and Stalking
Moderate: Homophobia and Antisemitism
knewton7's review against another edition
2.0
I rarely give up on books but I couldn't manage this one. The writing felt stilted and bumpy. The cases (I made it through 3) were interesting enough which got the book the second star but the flow of the chapters made for a disorganized organized feel. It felt like some parts of each chapter were overgrown parenthetical asides that got their own section.
Hopefully I can find better books about forensics. Has the CSI effect gone away so the memoirs and case histories are no longer in vogue? That would be very disappointing!
Hopefully I can find better books about forensics. Has the CSI effect gone away so the memoirs and case histories are no longer in vogue? That would be very disappointing!
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