American Autopsy

Interesting and sometimes heartbreaking.
We rarely think of politics when we think of medicine even when it's forensic, there is something uncomfortable in thinking about it that way and this book offers a rather unflinching if very human approach to the question.
I particularly enjoyed the section where Baden details how the bogus diagnosis of excited delirium came to exist and to be popularized even though the “science” that was used to bring the idea forth has been thoroughly debunked. This book is well worth the read just for that part alone.
Baden is very critical of the buddy-buddy system between prosecution, law enforcement and medical examiner's office and the tendency these institutions tend to have to see themselves as colleagues but if you're critical of the police as an institution you might find yourself at odds with him because he is also a firm believer that police officers in general are good people doing a hard job.
While it's clear that Baden is someone with a lot of heart who made a lot of decisions in his life based on a strong moral code the writing in this book is sometimes a little dry and I was sometimes taken aback by it when he talked about things that should have been very poignant.
I received an eARC of this book from BenBella Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.