Customer Reviews

Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner’s Office

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

 

 

Deadhouse doesn't club you over the head with the specifics science of forensics (yawn) but does give enough info. to keep forensic science enthusiasts interested. This isn't a textbook but rather a fast-paced look at the lives of people intersecting through a topic that is endlessly fascinating but not often discussed: death. And it takes place in Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia. That's enough reason to read this on its own.

This isn't the type of book I would normally pick up (I'm more of a Jane Austen, Larry McMurty reader) but I'm glad I did. The only bad thing about this book is that it didn't go on longer.

As a physician, I usually steer clear of medical books or TV shows, as they are typically all drama, no reality.

However, a friend gave me this book, and I was really surprised -- it is an accurate account of 'life' in the morgue, but told in a truly compellng manner. It was easy for me to empathize with the characters, especially the new interns, as I remember my first moments in medical school when I first dealt with death. I actually learned a lot too -- information about the infrastructure and politics behind the coroner's office.

Temple is a great story-teller. This book is a great read, from its medical detailing to its character development. I strongly recommend this book ... maybe I'll use it for my next book-club!

This short, non-fiction book takes us into the fascinating world of the Pittsburgh coroner's office -- one of the few major U.S. cities that still uses elected coroners for its death investigations instead of appointed medical examiners. The book is broken into several sections, beginning with a chapter that follows a young college student around on her first night as an intern, capturing her horrors, fears, and reactions as she follows a death investigation from the call to the scene through the autopsy the next day. Another chapter shows us the ins and outs of the autopsy room, and another even takes us upstairs out of the morgue and into the world of inquest hearings.

In between personal stories about the coroners and descriptions of the fascinating cases they encounter, Temple educates us on the difference between coroners and medical examiners, as well as the pros and cons of relying on each type of organization for investigational work. Additionally, he mixes in some history, detailing the evolution of the coroner's office over the last couple of centuries. And though I will say the writing was a bit dry -- Temple definitely writes like a reporter, which is great when you're writing a scholarly piece of non-fiction, but less effective when you're writing a book like this that is clearly meant to appeal to the masses of CSI watchers out there -- overall, I found this book extremely engrossing and very educational. Anyone who's ever been curious about what coroners really do shouldn't hesitate to pick up a copy, and that goes double for readers who have enjoyed books like Jessica Synder Sacks' "Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death" or Mary Roach's "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers."

I really enjoyed reading this book. This book actually helped

me decide whether or not going into this field of work.

I absolutely love CSI (but hate CSI Miami and CSI NY...too much Hollywood in those...ugh).

This is a book about these professional's lives, NOT forensic science technology and the latest techniques used, etc..which I, for one, wasn't expecting by reading the overview of the book to begin with.

If you want to get a feel of what it's like to live in these professionals shoes than this is your book, and a wonderful one at that!

I like to read about stuff that people never talk about and that is so taboo. We should all get more comfortable with death and our immortal bodies.

Thanks author, It was an enjoyable read!

The good: the author does a great job of describing the thoughts, feelings, and circumstances of the interns and workers in the coroner's office; the descriptions of the victims and their families are also well done, not cliched; I learned a lot about bodies and what happens to them during various kinds of deaths and afterward; as another reviewer said, the writing is even and fast-paced. I disagree with the reviewers who said that the book was dry and not very informative, but that may be because I am especially interested in medicine without having the education of a medical professional (I notice that a physician who reviewed it also found it interesting, however). This book would probably be interesting to others who like medicine, the human body, and who are curious about how things affect other people psychologically.

The bad: I don't have anything bad to say about this book. I couldn't put it down.

I gave it 4 stars only because I save 5 stars for the few books that move me so much that they change my life. This one was an engrossing few hours.

This book is written from the standpoint of a Philidelpia coroner's office intern, who obviously has never been exposed to cable television. While it was a fast read and interesting, it was very basic in the level of forensics it described. If you have watched any forensic television in the past, this is not the book for you. I hope that in the future, Mr. Temple would go a bit deeper, including not well known forensics to teach the reader a few things. There were interesting side plots about the acting deputy coroners in the office and some of the office politics, but all in all I felt disappointed to spend so much on a very short book that offered no new insights.