Stephen D. Cohle

Cause of Death is actually a non-fiction book that i got from my job (working at a bookstore has it’s perks). It’s a collection of case histories from the Kent County forensic pathologist and while the science and the autopsies are really interesting the writing is terrible! He was constantly repeating himself, kept referencing things over and over again, and had a very condescending/patronizing voice the entire time. It was if he was writing the book expecting every one who read it to be as dumb as rocks and that he was the supreme higher being. The structure of the book was also kinda weird, there are random breaks to tell side stories right in the middle of the current autopsy you’re reading about. Also he seems like a douche because he tells one of his friends (the co author) to show up at the morgue at a certain time and he himself is always a half hour to an hour late just because he can be. Ugh. But i stuck with the book mainly because the autopsies themselves were interesting.… (meer)

This was an excellent book on forensic medicine as seen from the layman's perspective. Written in corroboration between a medical examiner and a schoolteacher who observed the former's autopsies on weekends over a period of months, it covers all different types of death: natural, homicide, suicide, accident. It includes details (like the use of wintergreen to cope with the smell of decomposing corpses) which bring the postmortem room to life. And you are also told about the lives of the autopsy subjects, and can feel for them.

I would highly recommend Cause of Death to any lay person interested in autopsies and forensic medicine. My only complaint is that the book is somewhat repetitive; the authors tend to repeat the same facts (like, details on what the various autopsy knives and scapels are like) in every chapter.… (meer)