Unnatural Causes

Unnatural Causes is a memoir by Dr. Richard Shepherd, a well-known British forensic pathologist. It blends career retrospect, selected cases, and accessible explanations of forensic pathology, while also offering a quiet record of how forensic practice in the UK has evolved over time. What stood out to me most is the book’s humanity: Shepherd treats every body he examines with dignity, approaching each autopsy as a serious attempt to recover truth for the dead and clarity for the living. He writes with a kind of professional passion that never feels sensational, and he is also honest about the limits of modern medicine—sometimes, even with best efforts, the cause of death remains uncertain.

My main reservation is more personal than technical. When he turns to his marriage and personal life, the narrative feels noticeably selective. I could sense that he viewed his first marriage as unhappy, but the book offers limited reflection on what he did (or didn’t do) to sustain it. At moments, his devotion to work reads less like pure vocation and more like a form of avoidance.

Even with that caveat, the book left me with a deeper understanding of death. The dead do not feel, but death can produce overwhelming emotions in those left behind; in that sense, pain often belongs to the living. I would recommend this to most readers interested in forensic medicine and medical humanities, with one warning: some autopsy descriptions may be unsettling if you’re sensitive to dissection scenes.

Very easy and enthralling read. I recommend for anyone interested in true crime and science.