Customer Reviews

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book answered several questions I had while pounding out my first manuscript. Like how the police and coroner go about removing a dead body. The autopsy procedures are quite gruesome­­not for a weak stomach. There are hundreds of diagrams and pictures, investigation procedures, legal and medical terms, etc. Without it, I would have spent countless hours researching the basics. However, it did not cover everything. No book can. For instance, I had to find out what the effects of a frontal head trauma were and how long it would take the victim to recover, if at all.The section on murder and suicide is interesting, particularly the part about the crime scene and the difference between a hanging and strangulation. The wounds around the neck are markedly different. Like I said, the details in this book can turn some stomachs. But I learned a lot in one short volume.

Cause of Death ranks 2nd place in my "Favorites from the Howdunit Series". This book is amazingly informative and it will keep you reading straight through to the end! Cause of Death informs you that you might be able to tell how a victim died by the smell. For example, almond scent often relates to cyanide poisoning, or cyanide gas.

Cause of Death goes in depth on how a person might have died, what happens to a body once it is dead, types of injuries, and so much more! It even has detailed pictures such as the emergency room, and (in autopsy) how a human is cut for examination. Cause of Death covers it all...from priorities in the ER, to the order things are done at an autopsy.

The three most interesting sections of the book cover: * the discharge of firearms with pictures of types of bullets, how they impact, and what a hole would look like shot at different distances. * how to distinguish a murder from a suicide. * Crime and punishment (including a list of states' death penalties and how they are carried out).

I see no faults in this book. It has a great amount of information to create the perfect, believable death plot in your story. I highly recommend getting this book!!

This is one of the best books in the howdunit series...It is a very good book for people just starting to learn about forensics. It is very detailed in many differnet areas including: medical and leagal procedures, how to deterimin time of death, autopsy, differnt methods of death, capital punishment, and of course, causes of death. I love this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in crime scene investigation, or forensics, police work, ect. Happy reading!

While writing my first mystery, I found this book to be very helpful and a real page turner. While I wouldn't depend on it solely for information on forensics, it did give me a solid foundation for interviewing medical and law professionals. I believe this would also be a great book for someone simply interested in the field of forensics without being too textbookish.

This book is a useful reference tool for anyone who wants to write about death well. It deals mainly with forensics -- how you can rule out certain causes of death and circumstances of the crime. Some parts of it are dry -- others are anecdotal, which occasionally gave me story ideas but often left me bored. If you want to write a story with an important forensic element, this can be a great book. Keep it by you and read the sections you need as you need them.

This book is an excellent resource for writers who want to imbue their stories with the authentic details of unnatural death but don't really have all the tools and training of a full-time medical examiner. In my case, as a crime author, the text was an invaluable reference, putting some highly technical material into easily digested context. Recommended for writers of all kinds who need a good reference work on the myriad ways to die.

Informative on a general level. The problem I've found with these Howdunit series is that they don't go into enough detail for me. For instance with strangulation I want to know how long it takes the victim to die. What exactly happens in a physiologic way? What are the differences between women or children strangling a man or woman? And vice versa. How about repeated throttling as say in SM? How do I write about what the victim is feeling, what the murderer feels. Yes, hand marks on the neck indicate strangulation by a person and a 'Y' shape means hanging. But this is not nearly enough information to put into the death scene. I want my detective to beable to get into the minds of the murderer and the victim.

The author gives a down-to-earth discription of, among many other things, what happens in ER, autopsy labs, funeral homes etc where death is everyday life. Very good general medical knowledge. However, the author's knowledge in forensic field seems not absolutely perfect, with some passages conflicting with authoritative textbooks. Of course this book is intended for writers who, perhaps, have reason to care more about the common sense of their readers than scientfic correctness. The author also quotes a few paragraphs from renowned writers to prove his own point. To me this is rather lame. In all, this book may be a good handy reference for writers as well as general public who are interested in the field.

If you're planning on writing a suspensful novel and are unsure of whom to turn to in order to obtain information on forensic medicine, then this book is a useful resource. This can help you write clues for the detective in your novel to follow in the search for answers. Scientific terms are explained, so it is a great book to read.

This is a good introductory level research manual for aspiring writers. It doesn't go as in-depth as I'd hoped, but it is a good starting point.