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A review by sarahsadiesmith
Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
4.0
I am a big fan of a NCIS, NCIS is the naval crime investigative service and on the fictional tv show they oddly enough investigate murders. Ducky is the forensic pathologist, he works in the mortuary and establishes the often odd causes of death, in the show Ducky often has conversations with the deceased, and treats them with the upmost respect. I get the impression Dr Richard Shepherd (not to be confused with Dr Derek Shepherd, he from Grey’s Anatomy, a tv show to watch if you enjoy crying and watching all your favourite characters invariably suffer catastrophe or death) may well be a real life ducky although with slightly more marital problems.
Unnatural Causes is essentially a memoir of a forensic pathologist, one who has been involved in quite a few cases you will likely have heard of (hi Princess Diana, side note: apparently not a conspiracy, I’m still blaming Charles though, because he’s such a frickin bellend, and also all of France). It is a compelling read, and also really very interesting. It is for the most part about death, but not is a morbid sort of a way, Shepard manages to convey the greatest of horrors without dragging you down into a pit of despair. It is also conveys the respect he has for every person who he autopsies, in that respect it is quite comforting, that you can be treated with warmth even after you’ve long gone cold.
With such a career and dealing with aftermath of massacres, terrorism, and serial killers there is as you’d imagine a price to pay, and Dr Shepherd goes into some detail regarding the PTSD he developed late on his career and also the toll on his marriage from trying to remain unemotional in the face of the sadness and tragedy encountered through his line of work, not to mention the unequivocal horror that humans wreak on others.
A range of topics are covered, more than you might think. It’s not just a here’s my top interesting deaths. He goes into how prisoners are restrained and why this can be so dangerous (something we know all too well from America of late, but it’s more than common in the UK too). There’s the legal side, the way Defense consul attempt to manipulate autopsy reports to their own advantage, also the legalities involved in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) it is often extremely difficult to determine why the littlest of humans die, for a time SIDS was used as a catch all, then Louise Woodward came along and it was all the shaken babies, and then the tragedy of Sally Clarke who had two children die both determined as SIDS and a very poor statistician decided the odds this was 1 in 73 million (he is not good at sums) so they imprisoned her and eventually they realised she actually wasn’t to blame but by that stage she was too sad to continue with life.
It’s full of interesting trivia too, strangulation doesn’t necessarily mean someone asphyxiated, infact they dont really know exactly what it is that caused death in the case of strangulation. You can think you’re too warm in the late stages of hypothermia. You can die from bruises, but there needs to be a lot. Women tend to stab people, not all women mind, but if you’re going to murder someone and you’re a female you’re probably going to stab them. Knifes are handy and obviously we are always in the kitchen. The police dont always listen to science or reason (which is of no real surprise, often times I share the opinions of NWA re the Po Po) and humans are often fairly terrible to each other.
It says a lot for this book that he’s able to write about the murder of Samantha Bissett (I wouldn’t recommend googling that one) in such a way that he could so very easily conveyed what happened in a gratuitous violent way but instead he sciences it and shields the reader from the details that would be particularly tough to read, and also in a way it’s as though he is showing Ms Bissett the upmost respect too, people can be turned into the victims someone makes of them but he never does that here, with Samantha or any of those he has post mortem’d.
For those of you who love true crime, I know there is quite the trend for dramatisations of real life murders etc, or for those like me who enjoy the slightly less gruesome NCIS (I cant watch the true life things, I live on my own, I get serious heebie jeebies) then this book will have a lot to merit your time. And your time will be monopolised by it for it is one of those rare books that is a struggle to put down.
Unnatural Causes is essentially a memoir of a forensic pathologist, one who has been involved in quite a few cases you will likely have heard of (hi Princess Diana, side note: apparently not a conspiracy, I’m still blaming Charles though, because he’s such a frickin bellend, and also all of France). It is a compelling read, and also really very interesting. It is for the most part about death, but not is a morbid sort of a way, Shepard manages to convey the greatest of horrors without dragging you down into a pit of despair. It is also conveys the respect he has for every person who he autopsies, in that respect it is quite comforting, that you can be treated with warmth even after you’ve long gone cold.
With such a career and dealing with aftermath of massacres, terrorism, and serial killers there is as you’d imagine a price to pay, and Dr Shepherd goes into some detail regarding the PTSD he developed late on his career and also the toll on his marriage from trying to remain unemotional in the face of the sadness and tragedy encountered through his line of work, not to mention the unequivocal horror that humans wreak on others.
A range of topics are covered, more than you might think. It’s not just a here’s my top interesting deaths. He goes into how prisoners are restrained and why this can be so dangerous (something we know all too well from America of late, but it’s more than common in the UK too). There’s the legal side, the way Defense consul attempt to manipulate autopsy reports to their own advantage, also the legalities involved in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) it is often extremely difficult to determine why the littlest of humans die, for a time SIDS was used as a catch all, then Louise Woodward came along and it was all the shaken babies, and then the tragedy of Sally Clarke who had two children die both determined as SIDS and a very poor statistician decided the odds this was 1 in 73 million (he is not good at sums) so they imprisoned her and eventually they realised she actually wasn’t to blame but by that stage she was too sad to continue with life.
It’s full of interesting trivia too, strangulation doesn’t necessarily mean someone asphyxiated, infact they dont really know exactly what it is that caused death in the case of strangulation. You can think you’re too warm in the late stages of hypothermia. You can die from bruises, but there needs to be a lot. Women tend to stab people, not all women mind, but if you’re going to murder someone and you’re a female you’re probably going to stab them. Knifes are handy and obviously we are always in the kitchen. The police dont always listen to science or reason (which is of no real surprise, often times I share the opinions of NWA re the Po Po) and humans are often fairly terrible to each other.
It says a lot for this book that he’s able to write about the murder of Samantha Bissett (I wouldn’t recommend googling that one) in such a way that he could so very easily conveyed what happened in a gratuitous violent way but instead he sciences it and shields the reader from the details that would be particularly tough to read, and also in a way it’s as though he is showing Ms Bissett the upmost respect too, people can be turned into the victims someone makes of them but he never does that here, with Samantha or any of those he has post mortem’d.
For those of you who love true crime, I know there is quite the trend for dramatisations of real life murders etc, or for those like me who enjoy the slightly less gruesome NCIS (I cant watch the true life things, I live on my own, I get serious heebie jeebies) then this book will have a lot to merit your time. And your time will be monopolised by it for it is one of those rare books that is a struggle to put down.