Product Description

How the hot new science of forensic ecology is cracking some of the world's toughest criminal cases. When detectives come upon a murder victim, there's one thing they want to know above all else: When did the victim die? The answer can narrow a group of suspects, make or break an alibi, even assign a name to an unidentified body. But outside the fictional world of murder mysteries, time-of-death determinations have remained infamously elusive, bedeviling criminal investigators throughout history. Armed with an array of high-tech devices and tests, the world's best forensic pathologists are doing their best to shift the balance, but as Jessica Snyder Sachs demonstrates so eloquently in Corpse, this is a case in which nature might just trump technology: Plants, chemicals, and insects found near the body are turning out to be the fiercest weapons in our crime-fighting arsenal. In this highly original book, Sachs accompanies an eccentric group of entomologists, anthropologists, biochemists, and botanists--a new kind of biological "Mod Squad"--on some of their grisliest, most intractable cases. She also takes us into the courtroom, where "post-O. J. " forensic science as a whole is coming under fire and the new multidisciplinary art of forensic ecology is struggling to establish its credibility. Corpse is the fascinating story of the 2000year search to pinpoint time of death. It is also the terrible and beautiful story of what happens to our bodies when we die.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453715 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Corpse explores just one of the fascinating histories of forensic science. In 44 BC, a physician named Antistius examined the fresh corpse of Julius Caesar and, in science journalist Jessica Sachs's words, "announced that he knew which of the would-be emperor's twenty-three stab wounds had proved fatal", thus giving birth to a new science.

In making his announcement "before the forum"--the origin of the term forensics--Antistius relied on the medical knowledge of the day, which was none too developed. His modern counterparts have much better science at their disposal to account for causes of death, which, Sachs notes, tend to be "usually more than obvious to every police officer responding to the scene." Less obvious, and far more elusive, is the exact time death occurred, the datum that forensic pathologists seek to obtain but usually have to guess at, hampered "by death's infinite variations." Examining a dozen case studies that touch on the contents of Nicole Brown Simpson's stomach, a felled Confederate soldier's skull, the methods ofan English serial killer, and the contribution of an Indiana-based student of maggots to the forensic ecology of human remains, among other matters, Sachs explores the means by which those pathologists measure the interval between death and a body's discovery--a determin!!ation with often profound implications.

Sachs's book is a lucid, oddly fascinating work of popular science, though it's not for the queasy of stomach or the faint of heart. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author
Jessica Snyder Sachs is a free-lance health and science writer whose work regularly ap pears in Discover, Parenting, Redbook, McCall's, a nd National Wildlife. She lives in Atlanta.

Customer Reviews

Deeply researched overview on forensic biology/anthropology
If you missed the chance to meet the slightly oddballish but at the same time most interesting forenic guys from the U.S. who work on insects found on corpses, know all about how the bones of a 40-year old black male should look like, or how long it takes for a sunflower to grow on a corpse, this is the book for you. The author did an amazing job in contacting more or less all well-known scientists from the U.S. forensic biology/anthropology crowd. Since some of Snyder-Sachs' protagonists wrote their own books, you can even use those to go a little deeper into biographical, or scientific detail. Meanwhile, „Corpse" will give you a popular, deeply researched overview over the field of postmortem interval determination. The book has lots of drive since it goes from case report to case report, plus it will give you a good idea about how the forensic people work, think and behave.
Being a European reader, I also like the fact that some historical remarks found their way into the book. But don't be afraid, it's not dry numbers but mostly case reports again. If you are a non-U.S. reader, you may find it interesting to learn more about the variety of scientific methods that were checked and approved by the legal system in the U.S., and to compare it to your own.
As a forensic scientist, I am also glad that „Corpse" is out now since many of my undergraduate students cannot tell the difference between what happens at the „Body Farm", a Chief Medical Examiner's Office, and an Institute for Forensic Entomology. If they keep pestering me, I'll just send the next forensic generation to the library (which is a good place to visit, anyway). There, „Corpse" will tell them all in the best possible popular way.
However, you absolutely don't need to be a student to enjoy the book. It will make a good bathtub, or late night, or train ride read for anyone interested in criminalistic techniques, stories, and deduction. And who would not be?

Bugs, bugs and wait, more bugs
This was one of many forensics books that I have purchased in the last six months. If you are interested in how insects help or do not help pinpoint the time of death for a body then this book is for you. However I did not find it as interesting as I first thought I would because how I do enjoy to know things such as how insects can help aid pinpointing the time of death, it went into too much scientific or just generally too much detail for me. But if that's what you want to know more about then this book is for you. Personally, I prefer to know a little about everything, then more about subjects I prefer. I think this book's title should focus slightly more on the nature in the title than it does. But otherwise, an interesting read.

Life After Death
Whether you enjoy a good murder mystery on occaision, or prefer watching a nature program on the Discovery Channel, you might well enjoy Corpse, as I did. The author places the new discipline of forensic ecology in a 2,000+ year historical perspective around the struggle to determine time of death. It aroused my interests in everything from history, evolution and nature to creative deductive reasoning. The sensational aspects of the discipline's application only add to its appeal, while the author's light touch makes for a fast read and humorous--but respectful--treatment of the subject matter.