Teasing Secrets from the Dead
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
Teasing Secrets from the Dead is a front-lines story of crime scene investigation at some of the most infamous sites in recent history. In this absorbing, surprising, and undeniably compelling book, forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead.Emily Craig has been a witness to history, helping to seek justice for thousands of murder victims, both famous and unknown. It's a personal story that you won't soon forget. Emily first became intrigued by forensics work when, as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist--and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation. As a student working with the FBI in Waco, Emily helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, Emily landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backcountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, Emily has been regularly called to investigations across the country, including the site of the terrorist attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part--a dismembered leg--was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Through careful scientific analysis, Emily was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh.In September 2001, Emily received a phone call summoning her to New York City, where she directed the night-shift triage at the World Trade Center's body identification site, collaborating with forensics experts from all over the country to collect and identify the remains of September 11 victims.From the biggest news stories of our time to stranger-than-true local mysteries, these are unforgettable stories from the case files of Emily Craig's remarkable career.From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews with the most likes.
Emily Craig takes us on a journey through her illustrious career, working through the different cases she was assigned.
Through forensic investigations and the different techniques that were used to create life-like images of those who could not be identified.
I really enjoyed this book, and the many different areas that she touched on. There were some harder cases to read through, and some areas, such as the attacks of 9/11. The subsequent work to identify all of the victims who died in the attacks, were extremely hard to read through, but the human touch, and the many emotions of those who work on these cases all come through in the pages of this book.
Highly recommend this book!
A great memoir from a medical illustrator turned forensic anthropologist, including her work on some of the most notable and devastating mass fatalities the US has seen in the 90s and early 2000s.
Craig describes her path, and her craft in detail, without sugarcoating the grosser parts of death that she deals with daily.
Some have noted that at times, she can sound mildly self-aggrandizing, but she shall be forgiven, for being a pioneer, in general, and a woman in a male dominated field, requires an exceptional amount of determination and confidence. Besides, it is what competence looks like, both the confidence about the tools of the trade, and the all-consuming struggle against failure and letting everybody else and herself down that she so often describes.
Ultimately Craig reveals little groundbreaking new, but her insightful, empathetic, and sincere account is hard to put down.
Books
7 booksIf you enjoyed this book, then our algorithm says you may also enjoy these.
