A review by sharonleavy
Beyond the Tape: The Life and Many Deaths of a State Pathologist by Marie Cassidy

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

 

This is a book that I had to put down a few times. 

I find forensics & pathology fascinating, so when I was sent a copy of this book to read I was really looking forward to it. 

Dr Cassidy has a very dry, sarcastic type of humour that doesn't always translate well to paper. If you listen to her episode of The Creep Dive podcast, you'll get a much better idea of her personality than you will from this book. 

I'm not really a squeamish person - I grew up on rotten-dot-com and I watch a lot of true crime on YouTube but christ, this book pushed me right to my limits. Talk about bodies leaking and various types of deaths made my stomach turn a bit, and I convinced myself I had at least fifteen illnesses based on various ways people have passed away. The chapter on paediatric pathology in particular was very hard to read. 

I was surprised that many victims were mentioned by name - Ireland is such a small country that there's a real risk of a loved one picking this up and not expecting that they'll read something very violent or graphic about their relative that they may not want to be confronted with. 

The actual forensics and the process of identifying a body is absolutely fascinating and something I found really interesting to read about. 

The following cases are mentioned either in passing or in great detail in this book: 

Sharon Whelan; Sally Cannon; Olivia Dunlea; Manuela Riedo; Siobhan Kearney; Patryk Kilpa; Brian Murphy; George Hall; Anne Shortall; James Nolan; Meg Walsh; Dolores McRea; Robert Holohan; Amanda Duffy; Rachel O'Reilly; Mary Whelan; The Connors Family; Marion Ross; Marie Greene; Sr. Philomena Lyons; Gerry McGinley; Sharon Grace; Samantha O'Brien; Gregory Fox; John Butler; Sarah Hines; Tom O'Gorman; Lie Qing & Feng Yue.