Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook [Mass Market Paperback]

Douglas H. Ubelaker (Author), Henry Scammell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993 | ISBN-10: 0061091456 | ISBN-13: 978-0061091452

A look at the state-of-the-art techniques that enable forensic experts to read the details of a life from a single bone presents a collection of cases that take readers from archaeological digs to courtrooms. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Forensic anthropology is a relatively new science, and Ubelaker, curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute, is one of its most notable practitioners. Here, with freelance writer Scammel, he explains how those in the field work with police to solve mysteries lacking clues except for a few bones, on the basis of which experts can determine a victim's race, age and sex and often the cause of his or her death. Though the text is somewhat dry and technical, it can be compelling. The authors discuss problems that forensic anthropolists encounter, such as bones scattered over a wide area, false clues planted by killers, bones chewed by animals and inept procedures by local officials unfamiliar with advanced scientific techniques. True-crime addicts won't want to miss the book. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ubelaker, a forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution, has aided the FBI for years. Here he shows how traditional methods of physical anthropology and state-of-the-art chemical and computer analysis of victims' remains, no matter how worn or disarticulated, can be used to paint portraits of both the deceased and the circumstances of their deaths with an accuracy that should be discouraging to anyone with murderous intent. Ubelaker offers brief accounts of many cases and does not hold the reader's attention quite as well as Christopher Joyce and Eric Stover's Witnesses from the Grave ( LJ 12/90), which focuses on fewer cases in more detail. Still, this is good reading for amateur sleuths among large public library patrons or undergraduate populations.
- Jim Burns, Ottumwa, Ia.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061091456
• ISBN-13: 978-0061091452
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,514,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forensic anthropology, October 23, 2000

By 

Duwayne Anderson (Saint Helens, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook (Paperback)

This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a long while. It's about forensic anthropology. If the title sounds boring, don't be mislead. Ubelaker has done a masterful job of interweaving the science of forensic anthropology with some really interesting detective stories. The result is a wonderful blend of story telling, murder mystery, and science rolled into one.

One of the first things I liked about this book is that Ubelaker talks to the reader using the same correct anatomical names of bones that you'd expect from one of the foremost experts in the field (which he is). That's not to say the text comes across stuffy or condescending. On the contrary. I got the feeling that even though I'm a complete novice in this area Ubelaker has treated me, the reader, with enough respect to speak to me in correct terms, while putting at my disposal the means to catch up with his vocabulary. For example, he put a glossary of terms at the end of the book, and a simple sketch of a human skeleton, so you can look up the funny sounding words and find out what they mean. The ulna and radius, for example, are the two bones in your forearm. The talus is one of the bones in your ankle. I always appreciate an author who educates me. Someone who makes me learn something new. But I especially appreciate that person when they make the learning process interesting and natural. Not all authors do that, and fewer still do it well.

You might expect a book on forensic anthropology to be laid out in topical chapters. One chapter might tell you all about the names of the bones. Another might discuss characteristic marks on bones from knives, etc. Still another might discuss the technical details of decomposition. Well, Ubelaker does all that, but he does it without you actually realizing that it's happening. He does it by constructing virtually the entire book out of case histories from his personal experience. These case histories are grouped, roughly, into chapters that each teaches a different concept. But he does not teach by recitation of fact and rot memorization. Instead, these case histories are laid out like miniature crime mysteries, with Ubelaker walking the reader through the story, showing how the bones hold the key to the mystery, and explaining how they tell their story.

This isn't a textbook, though I wouldn't be surprised to find it on a list of recommended reading for an anthropology class. Rather it is a book meant to introduce first-time readers to the subject in an interesting and informative manner. It's meant to both initiate interest in the subject as well as to inform.

I learned a lot of interesting things from Ubelaker's book. For example, I had no idea that anthropologists can tell different human groups apart from their skeletal remains. I'd always assumed that we look pretty much the same under our skins, but that's not the case. Telling men from women is pretty easy, and telling the difference between European, Mongoloid, and African origin is not too difficult, either. Little clues about which bones have fused together, the size of nasal openings, and the widths of certain bones allow anthropologists to make remarkably accurate determinations when they have a well-preserved full skeleton. And, depending on circumstances, they can even tell age with a pretty good level of confidence. Even when the amount of bone is very limited, I was surprised at some of his examples of the wealth of information that could be inferred.

Some of the case stories involve especially poignant human tragedies (every human death is a tragedy, but the stories of some of the victims tear at your heartstrings a little harder than do others). At first Ubelaker seems a little detached in his telling of some of these stories. But as I worked my way through the book it became clear that he is a first-rate professional, and that beneath the academic exterior there is a kind and compassionate heart that understands the human component of his work, and treats it with the utmost respect and dignity.

This book is about death, and the application of science in determining the cause of death based on examination of corpses. Some of the descriptions are graphic, and there are definitely some chapters you won't want to read during a meal. One of the questions that puzzled me during the beginning of the book was how scientists are able to determine, based on the degree of decomposition, how long a body had been dead. Science is based on experimentation, you know, and this area is no different than others. Make sure when you read that chapter you're not eating a sandwich.

The book has about 300 pages and it's illustrated with black and white drawings and a few black and white photographs. I found it very engaging. I picked it up at the Portland airport just before a trip to Boston. Five days later, when I returned to Oregon, I'd finished it. If you like a good mystery, practical applications of the scientific method, and if you have some interest in crime, forensics, or anthropology, I think you will be as fascinated by this book as I am.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating topic made painfully dull!, August 21, 2000

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook (Paperback)

Looking at my shelves I see I have a fairly substantial collection of what might be called forensic pathology or forensic anthropology books. And this one is by far the dullest of them all... an inherently fascinating and compelling topic reduced to painful tedium. A typical account, without much exaggeration, goes like this: "I was sent a hand with the fingertips and thumb missing, severed at the wrist. After a while I reported it was with 70% probability the hand of a female, between the ages of 15 and 45. The case has never been solved." Repeat this, with minor variations, for 200-odd pages, and you have this book. Many of Ubelaker's fellow practitioners devote whole chapters of their books to a single complex case, and give us a real feeling for just how the information they provide fits into the big picture of the crime. Ubelaker, on the other hand, seems unwilling to devote much more than a page per crime, which means that to fill out the book he basically dumps the contents of his card indices onto the printed page. The result is less interesting to read, by far, than a stamp album!

There are, as Sherlock Holmes would say, some points of interest here but they come few and far between, and one would need the patience of a forensic anthropologist presented with a huge garbage bag of bone fragments, mixed animal and human, and none more than an inch long, to ferret out those points.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Connecting with Bones, October 7, 2000

By 

Molly M (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook (Paperback)

I've read this book several times and find new items of interest in it each time. The insight into method is as fascinating as the author's joyous interest in physical and forensic anthropology. BUT if you have it already and were hoping that this edition has been expanded --take a look through the new edition before you buy it. Another reviewer says it's exactly and no more than the old in a new jacket.