All That Remains: A Life in Death

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A model of how to write about the effect of human evil without losing either objectivity or sensitivity . . . Heartening and anything but morbid . . . Leaves you thinking about what kind of human qualities you value, what kinds of people you actually want to be with' (Rowan Williams, New Statesman) Poignant and thoughtprovoking… it is the book’s humanity which will connect with readers. Scottish Daily Mail

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 examining what her life and work has taught her. I'm not as blown away as many by this book. The accounts of anatomy and what happens after death are fascinating, and it's an interesting light on how to cope with a job that many people would find horrifying, but it's written in a very chatty way as many of these are--as if transcribed from a long talk in the pub rather than written--so a lot depends on whether the reader finds that endearing or otherwise. Generally I don't, The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London being a huge exception. And that's a completely different sort of weird job that needed to be told like a shaggy dog story. She is an excellent writer, too. If she ever decides to write a literary novel, she won’t need much assistance from an editor or ghost writer! Interestingly, a lot of American and British mystery writers know her or of her, and some of them call her for advice in writing their fictional books of murderous antagonists.

And what if you want to live, but other people decide you have no value, that you're a "useless feeder" as Hitler termed it. What if your family can't afford the financial burden of caring for you? What if the government decides they can't fit your care into the budget? This is already the case with socialized medicine. Thousands of Canadians can attest to the fact that they are receiving treatment in the U.S. because they didn't qualify for treatment in their own country. What I did not like about the books was that she spent too many chapters philosophizing about life and death ("what is life; what is death...what makes a person a person...what constitutes identity et al...")

Maybe death is not the demon we fear. She does not need to be lured, brutal, or rude. She can be silent, peaceful, and merciful. Perhaps the answer is that we don't trust her, because we don't choose to get to know her. To take the trouble in the course of our lives to understand her.." There are a wide variety of cases offered to the reader in the course of this book. I'd rather people discovered the stories for themselves. However I would just say that the Kosovo chapter was far the hardest to read and made me shed a tear. It might well have been the one with most humour in too. Certainly the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Kosovo chapters show just how determinedly outspoken the author can be although she appears to be listened too increasingly as well. The last two thirds make for a solid, but not outstanding, addition to a shelf about death. Just know that you can gloss over the aforementioned sections and you won't miss a thing. One might expect [this book] to be a grim read but it absolutely isn't. I found it invigorating!' (Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week')The book is closely based on the Colonial Parkway Killer, a suspected serial killer who is thought to have murdered 8 people in Virginia in the 1980s. In real life the cases are still unsolved though, as described in the true crime documentary Lovers’ Lane Murders from 2021. As Cornwell's novel made many believe that the Colonial Parkway murders had been solved, [2] father-daughter true crime authors Blaine Pardoe and Victoria Hester issued their book A special kind of evil in 2017, providing new information from the investigations. [3] Characters [ edit ] An engrossing memoir . . . an affecting mix of personal and professional' ( Erica Wagner , Financial Times)

A killer is stalking young couples, and the remains of 8 youngsters have been found dead over a couple of years. [1] The book has the feel of the author having referred to an exacting diary because it is so well-written, coherent, and put together. It could be mistaken for a first-person literary novel, actually, if it wasn’t labeled as a memoir. An engrossing memoir ... an affecting mix of the personal and professional. Erica Wagner, Financial Times She begins the book with her medical training in university, what happens in a dissecting lab and how she felt standing before her first body. She also describes her childhood, her family, and the deaths of beloved family members, her first funerals. It took time, but as she became more skillful, her reputation began to grow and she began to be involved in more prestigious and important investigations, such as in gathering evidence of war crimes through forensic examinations of mass graves in war zones. Compelling, brave and extremely accessible.. A must for anyone who thinks about the basics of living and dying. And there are jokes as well. Rachel Joyce

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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, author of TWO NIGHTS and the Temperance Brennan series