Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: extremity trauma, unspeakable trauma, impalement injuries, United States, Assaulted Elders, The Defenseless (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This reference book has much to offer many. Indispensable for the novelist, with gore-filled chapters and multiple car crashes spewing limbs and guts, Dr. David Page's opus will also be treasured by medical enthusiasts, hypochondriacs, and those who like lively bathroom reading. From trench foot to crunched legs, massive hemothorax to flail chests, Body Trauma is educational, comprehensive, and a jolly good time. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A fascinating and most helpful reference for any writer of fiction or non-fiction" -- Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Shelf Life

"A valuable resource for writers. I will certainly consult it the next time a physical mishap befalls one of my characters." -- David Anthony Durham, author of Pride of Carthage

"An authoritative guide that delivers diagnosis and plot ideas with a wry bookside manner." -- James Patrick Kelly, Hugo award-winning author of BURN.

"With this helpful guide Ahab's missing leg might have been labeled a traumatic amputation of the fibula and tibia." -- Michael White, author of The Blind Side of The Heart, A Brother's Blood, A Dream of Wolves, The Garden of Martyrs

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Behler Publications (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933016418
• ISBN-13: 978-1933016412
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #234,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally very useful, October 23, 2000

By	P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) (Paperback)

Like most of the "Howdunit" series, this is a useful volume that every aspiring mystery writer should own. It's full of helpful, often detailed descriptions of various types of wounds and injuries, how they're treated, and, if they're not immediately fatal, whether they could lead to death or long-term disability. The chapter on torso injuries was especially good: it's not intuitively obvious to a non-medical person (like me) what the consequences of a particular type of wound or blow would be, and this made it much clearer. I liked the author's use of quotations from mystery and adventure writers to illustrate his points. And, although the tone is fairly dry, I found this volume easier going than others in the series, mostly because he used comparisons effectively and included easy-to-understand graphics.
Some quibbles:
1. The book is very uneven. Some chapters are detailed and comprehensive, while I found others sketchy: for example, the description of types of gunshot wounds was a good general overview, but it didn't give enough specific information to answer the question I had. A chapter-by-chapter list of references, or suggestions for further reading, would have been useful too.
2. The author occasionally veers off into "Here's a nifty idea for your mystery novel." Some of them ARE indeed nifty ideas, but I'd never use them, because I'm sure the first person to read this book already has! I think the book would have been more useful to more writers if he'd just stuck to providing the facts.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unshocking!, May 5, 2002

By	M. S. Green (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) (Paperback)

Amazing -- a book about traumatic injuries that neglects any discussion of shock. I've had to borrow my partner's anatomy & physiology text for that part. There's some good basic info here, but I'll need to look elsewhere (& you will too) for detailed information on the kinds of wounds a character might sustain in sword fights or the treatments your characters might receive before the advent of modern Western medical techniques. Better news if your story takes place in the contemporary urban industrial world, with a modern emergency room or trauma center. But when it comes down to it, for most situations, this book isn't going to replace every good writer's necessary tool: research, research, research.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exact Injury Details and Nothing Else, February 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) (Paperback)

...........which is why I love this book. I just recieved it as a gift and have only put it down to give a high rating on here. I am EXTREMELY thankful that all of the information is about injuries. Any talk about nursing and caregiving and any other detail practices which occur in the whole environment of 'treatment' is wonderfully not touched on. This is a book that is EXACTLY what its title , intro, and jacket claim it to be. These qualities are such rare things its completely refreshing to have them in my hands.