What the Dead Know
Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
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- USD 1.99
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- USD 1.99
Descripción editorial
A “remarkably candid and sensitive” (The Wall Street Journal) true crime memoir from Barbara Butcher, a trailblazing New York City death investigator, who reveals the untold stories behind more than 5,500 death scenes, including the nation’s most horrific tragedy: the 9/11 attacks.
When Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism, she found an unexpected lifeline in a job at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in NYC. As only the second woman ever hired for the role—and the first to last more than three months—she became a vital force in the world of forensic science and criminal investigations.
Over the next two decades, Butcher worked thousands of cases: gruesome homicides, suspicious suicides, heartbreaking scenes involving underage victims, and complex mass casualty investigations. In her unforgettable account, she invites readers into the gritty, high-stakes world of crime-scene investigation, from the autopsy room and morgue to tense moments at active crime scenes. Along the way, she uncovered how confronting death every day gave her a new perspective on life—and ultimately saved her from becoming a statistic herself.
In vivid, darkly humorous prose, Butcher recounts how she narrowly avoided a boobytrapped suicide scene, and how, during 9/11, she and her colleagues worked tirelessly to identify victims using scraps of clothing, DNA, and the memories of grieving loved ones. Her honesty, resilience, and sharp wit make this a standout in the genre of first responder memoirs and women in law enforcement.
“Breathtakingly honest, compassionate, and raw” (Patricia Cornwell) and “completely unputdownable” (Adriana Trigiani), What the Dead Know is a powerful, insider’s look at the world of death and the lessons it teaches us about how to live. Fans of forensic memoirs, cold case investigations, true crime, Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and TV series like CSI or Mindhunter won’t be able to put this down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Butcher, the chief of staff at New York City's office of the chief medical examiner, artfully integrates her personal struggles into this riveting debut memoir that doubles as an inside look at the work of medicolegal investigators. As as a teen, Butcher dealt with her suicidal depression by turning to drugs. She blew multiple opportunities, including a college scholarship, but was transformed by a chance intervention: the director of a nursing home on Long Island who hired Butcher to help orient dementia patients suggested she look into becoming a physician's assistant. That led Butcher to land an entry-level investigative position with New York's chief medical examiner in 1992, and she eventually rose through the ranks to become his top aide. Butcher shares some of the grisly tricks of her trade, such as how best to roll over a corpse to look for evidence, and gravely recounts her more sensitive inquiries, including her efforts to identify remains from 9/11. Throughout, though, she employs welcome doses of dark humor and makes even the more complicated aspects of her work fully accessible to a lay audience. Readers interested in how real-life CSI functions will be rapt.
