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Reviews tagging 'Child death'
How to Solve a Murder: True Stories from a Life in Forensic Medicine by Pauline Tremain, Derek Tremain
4 reviews
anniereads221's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Suicide, Torture, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Medical content, Rape, Blood, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Panic attacks/disorders
Drowning graphicnarsku's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Sexual violence
maisierosereads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I received an audio ARC of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
"How to Solve a Murder" is an interesting set of anecdotes spanning several decades of the authors' work in the forensic science field (and associated areas). It includes their respective paths into these careers and their notable contributions to the subject such as diatoms, the National Injuries Database, and body mapping. Similarly to "Unnatural Causes" by Dr Richard Shephere (who, having worked with Derek Tremain, provided the foreword to this book), there are some personal anecdotes mixed within the professional; for instance, how the authors met and got married. Although I was primarily interested in this title for the science I did appreciate how these stories reflected the reality of life as a person working in forensics. I also found Pauline Tremain's perspective interesting - we often think of the people directly involved in the forensics, but I don't think many of us consider what it would be like to be the person taking notes and doing other administrative tasks!
The narration and sound quality of this audiobook were both good, making it easy to follow even without my full attention.
I do think the title of this book is a little misleading; although the techniques used to gather the evidence needed to support murder investigations is discussed, I think it's worth noting that the content isn't completely focused on murder, nor does it follow the process of a murder being committed to it being solved (and prosecuted) in full as the title may suggest. I also found some parts of the book repetitive or strangely paced.
That being said, I did think that this book was interesting and didn't have to force myself to keep listening. I would recommend that anyone with an interest in hearing a realistic first hand account of life in forensic science gives it a try.
Content warnings: death (including child death), murder, suicide, sexual assault (including CSA), descriptions of injuries, blood, graphic descriptions of autopsies and other postmortem investigations.
"How to Solve a Murder" is an interesting set of anecdotes spanning several decades of the authors' work in the forensic science field (and associated areas). It includes their respective paths into these careers and their notable contributions to the subject such as diatoms, the National Injuries Database, and body mapping. Similarly to "Unnatural Causes" by Dr Richard Shephere (who, having worked with Derek Tremain, provided the foreword to this book), there are some personal anecdotes mixed within the professional; for instance, how the authors met and got married. Although I was primarily interested in this title for the science I did appreciate how these stories reflected the reality of life as a person working in forensics. I also found Pauline Tremain's perspective interesting - we often think of the people directly involved in the forensics, but I don't think many of us consider what it would be like to be the person taking notes and doing other administrative tasks!
The narration and sound quality of this audiobook were both good, making it easy to follow even without my full attention.
I do think the title of this book is a little misleading; although the techniques used to gather the evidence needed to support murder investigations is discussed, I think it's worth noting that the content isn't completely focused on murder, nor does it follow the process of a murder being committed to it being solved (and prosecuted) in full as the title may suggest. I also found some parts of the book repetitive or strangely paced.
That being said, I did think that this book was interesting and didn't have to force myself to keep listening. I would recommend that anyone with an interest in hearing a realistic first hand account of life in forensic science gives it a try.
Content warnings: death (including child death), murder, suicide, sexual assault (including CSA), descriptions of injuries, blood, graphic descriptions of autopsies and other postmortem investigations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
liseyp's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Thanks to the publishers, authors and NetGalley UK for the opportunity to read this memoir from two people who have worked through the development of some forms of modern forensic science.
Derek and Pauline Tremain met when they both worked at St Guy’s in forensic sciences. Derek has started as a 15-year-old technician, building his skills and interests particularly in drowning analysis of weapon/injury overlay. Pauline worked on the administrative side, but was never far from the real life guts and gore as she took dictation from pathologists on site as they explored the dead bodies (or parts of bodies in front of them.
Unfortunately this book didn’t quite live up to my expectations. In parts it’s anecdote based, taking a similar format to books like This Is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (although nowhere near as darkly funny or shocking as Adam’s book). However, these anecdotes are largely surface level, lacking the depth to be really engaging.
The bits that really got my attention were Derek’s chapters on developing his expertise in drowning analysis. The detail of the difference between a wet and a dry drowning and how to analyse samples from the body to confirm a wet drowning were detailed enough to be interesting without throwing too many technical terms at a lay reader to be off putting. Likewise his stories of working in the emerging fields of weapon/injury overlay and body mapping were fascinating. A book focussed on this rather than a mishmash of anecdotes would have made this a much stronger recommendation. Still there’s much in here to appeal to anyone intrigued by the world of forensics and who wants an easily accessible laypersons read into how the real world labs differ from the glamour of the TV and movie versions.
Derek and Pauline Tremain met when they both worked at St Guy’s in forensic sciences. Derek has started as a 15-year-old technician, building his skills and interests particularly in drowning analysis of weapon/injury overlay. Pauline worked on the administrative side, but was never far from the real life guts and gore as she took dictation from pathologists on site as they explored the dead bodies (or parts of bodies in front of them.
Unfortunately this book didn’t quite live up to my expectations. In parts it’s anecdote based, taking a similar format to books like This Is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (although nowhere near as darkly funny or shocking as Adam’s book). However, these anecdotes are largely surface level, lacking the depth to be really engaging.
The bits that really got my attention were Derek’s chapters on developing his expertise in drowning analysis. The detail of the difference between a wet and a dry drowning and how to analyse samples from the body to confirm a wet drowning were detailed enough to be interesting without throwing too many technical terms at a lay reader to be off putting. Likewise his stories of working in the emerging fields of weapon/injury overlay and body mapping were fascinating. A book focussed on this rather than a mishmash of anecdotes would have made this a much stronger recommendation. Still there’s much in here to appeal to anyone intrigued by the world of forensics and who wants an easily accessible laypersons read into how the real world labs differ from the glamour of the TV and movie versions.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, Gun violence, and Gore
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