I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
Dead men tell no tales, but they sure make some excellent teachers. Have you ever had someone give you the platitude that death is just a 'natural part of life'? Christians know better. Truth is, death was never intended to be part of the human experience. Sin brought death into the world. It is a result of our disobedience to God and His ideal plan for humanity. Death is not natural. It's not pretty. It's never dignified. It's part of a curse. And no one knows that truth better than a forensic death investigator, who looks Death in the eyes on a near daily basis. This book is a fascinating collection of real life and unusual death investigations as it can only be told by someone who's experienced it every day for the last twenty-five years. Though the subject matter might sound macabre, the message inside is one of great hope for living a more abundant life and developing a closer relationship with the One who had defeated Death...Jesus Christ.
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Max Lucado Meets CSI. Holloway has been writing fiction stories for many years, sometimes involving various cryptids, other times involving various folklores, and even one time using his day job to create a fictional tale of a crime scene “cleaner”. This is his first foray into the nonfiction realm, and here he uses his day job to talk about Christian ideals in a style very reminiscent of Max Lucado. Each chapter is roughly half “here's a story from my day job as a forensic death investigator” and roughly half “here's how that tale impacts the Christian life”. Because Holloway consistently uses prooftexting – the technique of citing Bible verses out of context in support of one's thesis – I personally cannot give it any more than the four stars I've chosen to give it here. Others, particularly Christians or at least those than enjoy reading books such as Lucado's works, will likely rate it higher and honestly I cannot fault them for it. It was a solid tale in that vein, I simply am so adamantly against prooftexting that I cannot allow myself to give 5 stars to any text that uses the technique. Others more critical of Christian beliefs reading this more for the CSI side of it (which is a valid approach, that side is truly fascinating) might rate the book a bit more critically specifically because of the Christian points, and that too would be fair-ish. Holloway, as he admits in the text, is an ordained minister and a Southern Baptist, and what he says throughout the text is mostly solidly in line with current Southern Baptist theology. So if you're reading this book just for the CSI side, maybe just skip over the back half of most chapters, or skim them for any conclusions about the CSI side of the chapter. Overall a very well written book with a rare if not unique perspective in this field, and one that is very much recommended.
