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A review by blackmore
How to Solve a Murder: True Stories from a Life in Forensic Medicine by Pauline Tremain, Derek Tremain
2.0
The presentation of this book is atrocious. There are two authors writing from their own perspectives, but they switch at complete random, with no demarcation at all. Halfway through a paragraph you'll realise from context clues that you're now reading from the other person's perspective, which is extremely jarring. In one notable case an entire chapter was written from Pauline's perspective then switched to Derek for a single (pointless) paragraph, then switched back.
There's also very little continuity to topics and frequent tangents, which makes it difficult to follow.
This is really more of a joint biography with a lot of personal anecdotes completely unrelated to their work. Only about half of it is actually about forensics, and only a fraction of that is about "how to solve a murder". This would be fine, but it makes the title very misleading.
I'm not sure why Pauline is included at all. I'm writing this before I've finished the book so maybe she has something interesting to say in the last third, but since she just quit the job I doubt it. Her sections are mostly stories about how she's rather break H&S codes than cover her stilettos, or how one time her boss saw her thong because she kept wearing such short skirts, or how young and sexy she was and what an asset that was to all the men in the office. When she did talk about the work, it was mostly "it looked gross and smelled bad". Insightful! She did also mention the difficulty & traumatising nature of facing death on a daily basis, which brings up concerns about the mental wellbeing of workers in this field, which is worth mentioning, but again that's very little of it. If she had to join in at all, it would be better served by having one chapter with her perspective of the work, which would be more than enough for everything worthwhile she has to say.
Gets two stars for the parts that were actually interesting. Might have gotten three if it was given a title that made it clear this was first and foremost a memoir.
There's also very little continuity to topics and frequent tangents, which makes it difficult to follow.
This is really more of a joint biography with a lot of personal anecdotes completely unrelated to their work. Only about half of it is actually about forensics, and only a fraction of that is about "how to solve a murder". This would be fine, but it makes the title very misleading.
I'm not sure why Pauline is included at all. I'm writing this before I've finished the book so maybe she has something interesting to say in the last third, but since she just quit the job I doubt it. Her sections are mostly stories about how she's rather break H&S codes than cover her stilettos, or how one time her boss saw her thong because she kept wearing such short skirts, or how young and sexy she was and what an asset that was to all the men in the office. When she did talk about the work, it was mostly "it looked gross and smelled bad". Insightful! She did also mention the difficulty & traumatising nature of facing death on a daily basis, which brings up concerns about the mental wellbeing of workers in this field, which is worth mentioning, but again that's very little of it. If she had to join in at all, it would be better served by having one chapter with her perspective of the work, which would be more than enough for everything worthwhile she has to say.
Gets two stars for the parts that were actually interesting. Might have gotten three if it was given a title that made it clear this was first and foremost a memoir.