Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist by Richard Shepherd

12 reviews

louise_maw's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Blood, Child abuse, Deportation, and Murder

sineadisreadingagain's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Mass/school shootings

nojerama's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

A follow up from reading Beyond The Tape by Dr Marie Cassidy last year. A fascinating book that captivated me from the get go, and the more reflective tone and focus on Dr Shepherd's mental health was an interesting perspective to pair alongside the clinical case studies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Hate crime, Self harm, Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Abandonment, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Cursing, Death, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Dementia, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Excrement

alisonannk's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Medical content, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Death, Hate crime, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Vomit, Alcoholism, Police brutality, and Racism

Minor: Cancer

eliel's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Mental illness, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Alcohol

anniereads221's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Torture, Medical content, Murder, Mental illness, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Rape, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

ymer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical content, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Self harm

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This was absolutely fascinating. From the high profile cases to those that were completely unknown, Shepherd manages to find the perfect balance between clinical language and narrative prose, from initial examination through to court and conviction in some cases. He writes really well; the post-mortems are scientific enough to keep from being hard to stomach, but not so detached that you can't also feel empathy for the victims, their families and those involved in the deaths.

Some of the bureaucracy becomes so frustrating, and the toll it takes on Shepherd's personal life is awful. But he writes with such brilliant clarity and it's one of those rare non-fictions that reads enough like a novel I couldn't put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Suicide, and Physical abuse

heini's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Car accident, Miscarriage, and Vomit

Extremely detailed descriptions of (many) children's death, bodies and murders of children.

sheryl_macca's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Categorising this book is complicated for the best of reasons. It is more than just a memoir. Unnatural Causes is a blend of personal reflection on marriage, fatherhood, mental health and on achievement and career success. It is a blend of true crime, science and recent historical events. It's written with honesty, openness and admiration for colleagues and personal heroes. It's written with great respect for the dead, their families, his own family and for procedure and justice. Unnatural Causes is absolutely fascinating.

Dr Richard Shepherd was a/the pathologist in a variety of well known cases; Joy Gardner, Stephen Lawrence, Lady Diana, Dr Harold Shipman, Derrick Bird. He was also a/the pathologist in a variety of major incidents; 9/11, Hungerford, terrorist attacks by Osama Bin Laden.

Dr Richard Shepherd was also instrumental, pivotal even, in the development of life saving policy and procedures regarding London's major incident plans and the safe restraint of people in custody.

Dr Richard Shepherd is also a calming force, a courageous and quiet man with a great sense of responsibility. He'saa man who admits his mistakes. He's a man who lives with PTSD, panic attacks and who isn't afraid to let the reader in.

Unnatural Causes is gripping, emotional, interesting and informative. It is macabre in parts and there are challenging sections but it's thoroughly enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Hate crime

Minor: Infidelity