Ratings14
Average rating4.5
SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER! Featured on BBC RADIO 4's Start the Week 'Sue Black has been intimately involved with the aftermath of death for her whole professional career and in her book she weaves in details of her amazing and active life with her analysis of death in a narrative that is personal, touching, occasionally tragic but also instilled with her wonderful sense of humour.' Dr Richard Shepherd, Forensic Pathologist 'A beautifully written memoir' Sunday Times. 'All That Remains provides a fascinating look at death - its causes, our attitudes toward it, the forensic scientist's way of analyzing it. A unique and thoroughly engaging book' Kathy Reichs Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment, and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed, and what her work has taught her. Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue's book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour in stories as gripping as the best crime novel. Our own death will remain a great unknown. But as an expert witness from the final frontier, Sue Black is the wisest, most reassuring, most compelling of guides.
Reviews with the most likes.
This books was FABULOUS! I was hooked from the first page.
There are a few things that I would draw those who are interested in reading this book to:
1. If you have a weak stomach, rethink reading this. There are details in there that can make you queasy. I also do not recommend eating before reading for the above reasons.
2. There is a lot of terminology that many might not be acquainted with.
Those were my cons - the rest is pure praise. I could not get enough of this book, and I really wanted more when it was finished. I found myself wanting more - more information, more investigation (I can never get enough of this) - looking for and finding the cause of death.... and she pulls all her information together with ease and fact.
GET IT NOW!
I'm not a big fan of forensic pathology and unlike the author I'd rather experiment on rats in a lab than dissect bodies in various stages of putrefaction. All this considered, I enjoyed her tone and her attitude towards death, despite her encounters with some of the worst forms of it. I found the book pretty informative and east to read. 4.5* rounded to 5* for the Scottishness
Utterly fascinating!! A very niche subject so will not be for everyone but I was engrossed by it.
My only niggle is that, although the audiobook narrator was very good, I didn't understand why there was an American narrator for a book written by a Scottish author. Why not use a British narrator?