All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
Written by Sue Black
Narrated by Angela Dawe
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Book of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary Awards
For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, and CSI shows, a renowned forensic scientist on death and mortality.
Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller readers, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
Cutting through hype, romanticism, and cliché, she recounts her first dissection; her own first acquaintance with a loved one’s death; the mortal remains in her lab and at burial sites as well as scenes of violence, murder, and criminal dismemberment; and about investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident, or natural disaster, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. She uses key cases to reveal how forensic science has developed and what her work has taught her about human nature.
Acclaimed by bestselling crime writers and fellow scientists alike, All That Remains is neither sad nor macabre. While Professor Black tells of tragedy, she also infuses her stories with a wicked sense of humor and much common sense.
Sue Black
Professor Sue Black is Director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science and Deputy Principal for public engagement. She is a forensic anthropologist and an anatomist, founder and past President of the British Association for Human Identification, and advisor to the Home Office and Interpol on issues pertaining to forensic anthropology in disaster victim identification (DVI). She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a certified forensic anthropologist. She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for her services to forensic anthropology in Kosovo, the Lucy Mair medal for humanitarian services and a police commendation for DVI training in 2008, Hon Prof of Anatomy for the Royal Scottish Academy in 2014 and the Fletcher of Saltoun award for her contribution to Scottish culture also in 2014. She was awarded both the Brian Cox and the Stephen Fry awards for public engagement with research and in 2013 her Centre was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. In 2015 she was awarded a £10M grant from the Leverhulme Trust to set up a research centre for forensic science.
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Reviews for All That Remains
387 ratings25 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Why have an American reading a book by a British author? I found the voice quite off-putting. The introduction also had some rather silly ideas about death, so although I'm sure there were some interesting bits, it was not for me.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Instead of making me at ease with death (as people seem to react to this book), it only made me more aware of the various terrible ways I could die. I am now more terrified than before, thanks.
The main problem with the audiobook is the reader - an American woman reads it in a very American way and so changes the whole feeling of the book from a supposedly matter-of-fact view of Sue Black’s work (even though the author doesn’t seem to be as pragmatic in this aspect as she claims, emphasised by the fact that she refers to death as “her” instead of “it”) to a weirdly hopeful tone of self-help books. Somehow I got used to it and finished the book, but all the time I felt as if something was not really right.2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic! While the narrator did a good job, it's a pity it was an American accent narrating a Scottish woman's story.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I was really looking forward to listening to this book, but the voice just doesn't match with what the book is about. Everything feels very rushed.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I do appreciate all the hard work and scientific endeavors of the author. I learned a lot about forensic anthropology. However, the attempts to keep the book lighthearted and the moral musings were not very successful and sometimes even misplaced in my view.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really helped sooth some of my fears about death or seeing a dead body inadvertently. She handles the subject well, not too serious and not carelessly funny. Balanced and respectful. Like an fun aunt who would let you drink something you shouldn’t but would also care for you and give you limits.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very interesting and truly worth it. I have another perspective about death and all that it involves.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was a subject that we avoid talking about. It was good to learn so much in private from an expert to get through the gore and understand the value. To really think about my own concept of death. To realize the cruelty that men can inflect on others and how we tend to ignore it. If it happens to someone else. Especially if they speak a different language, or they are a different color or religion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loved the book and writing, but not the person reading it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved the book, and am deeply inspired by Sue Black and her work. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this subject.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating. I would recommend everyone read this book. It started off a little slow for me, but by the end I was riveted by her compassionate and intelligent discussion of death and anatomy. My only complaint is that, as a public health professional myself, I wish she would not have disparaged preventive medicine at the end. I completely understand her point of view but I hope her words will not discourage anyone from getting screened for cancer without understanding the full benefits of such screening. Still would recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A brilliant book, such an amazing insight into death
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She successfully provides a humanistic touch to such a delicate subject. I really enjoyed the book. If I could offer any advice, I wish Dame Sue Black would have been the one to read her own written text.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truely enjoyed this book. Very informative. Great reader. Thank you.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I found this subject matter fascinating. Peppers With genuine humour was quite hilarious at times. The author really humanize this very deep subject matter.
Loved the narrators voice too. Could not stop listening. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Knowledge spreading, riveting and very very interesting. Couldn’t stop listening. Thank you
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book!!! I enjoyed every page of it, written very respectfully. Also, great science !
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very educational and entertaining! Sue Black has lived quite the life and is a great storyteller. She's extremely intelligent and witty...someone I would like to meet in real life. She also helped me look at death in a different way. Can't wait to listen to the sequel!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book and excellently narrated. I appreciated how the author handled the topics of sex and gender.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting stories about her work and life, by a Scottish forensic anthropologist. Very funny in spots, educational in others.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm very over-emotional around the subject of death, so in recent years I've been pulling up my big girl pants and doing more reading around the subject in the hope that this helps. So far it's had zero effect, but I'm remaining positive, and learning lots of interesting things along the way.Professor Dame Sue Black is one of the world's leading forensic pathologists (I'm not sure if that's a fact or her publisher's spin - I like to think the former), clearly not a job that the majority of the population could stomach but a fascinating one nonetheless. While Black just pipped Dr. Richard Shepherd to the publishing post on this type of forensic pathology book for the masses (he wrote the equally fascinating Unnatural Causes), both authors took different approaches to their writing on their rather gruesome careers. Shepherd's book focuses on high-profile cases that he's been involved with and how he went about establishing the cause of death, interspersed with personal reflections on how his job detrimentally affected his own family life and marriage. Black's book is more a miss-mash of genres; partly a science overview on a grizzly subject (yet one that comes to us all), partly a memoir on her career and partly reflections on death itself (which is particularly interesting given the non-emotional approach she must bring to her day-to-day job). If the two books were TV shows, Shepherd's book would be more Channel 4 sensationalist reality TV whereas Black's would be a BBC Two science show (in fact I believe they both have actually done independent TV shows that probably don't fall too far from this).This book by Black was fantastic. Superbly well written, it was informative yet extremely accessible to those from a non-science background and gripped me from the get-go, covering so many different aspects of death. Black brings us behind the scenes of university anatomy classes, providing some insight into why people choose to donate their bodies to medical science (as well as what actually happens when they do) and what it's like for students doing their first cadaver dissections. Holding our hand she explains the bodily process of death from dying to decomposition, her experience of facing death within her own family, the differing approaches certain countries have on handling of bodies after death, and the ethical decisions that come into forensic pathology. From a science perspective she focuses less on stories about how she established the cause of death (although there is a little of that) and more on the science around the information that can be taken from bones and tissue to try to identify remains. She takes us through her work on the back of a number of atrocities (such as Kosovo and the 2004 Tsunami), but throughout it's with utter respect to the deceased, and on these she talks more about the logistical difficulties of trying to do a forensic pathology job in foreign disaster or atrocity sites, keeping opportunities for sensationalism in check.Black is clearly a no-nonsense Scot with a great sense of humour, and the writing in this memoir was terrific from start to finish. She perfects the balance between not dumbing down the science yet making it accessible, and lifts the curtain on this unusual yet fascinating career without taking her eye of her code of ethics along the way. There's more than a glimpse of ego along the way, but not enough to be off-putting.4.5 stars - hugely interesting without in any way being macabre (well, maybe just a little in places).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating autobiography from a UK forensic anthropologist for whom death has become part of life. The introduction is a little dry, but Sue Black's recounting of her personal and professional dealings with the dead, from her grandfather's funeral to working on a Disaster Victim Identification team in Kosovo, ironically bring her narrative to life. I found her stories both insightful and emotive, but she also has a wonderfully dry sense of humour, which I think must be a prerequisite for all those working in such a morbid profession. I do wish there were more illustrations, however - I had to Google some interesting cases she mentions, such as the 'Brienzi' body and the bones of a Roman woman who died giving birth to triplets.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Continually interesting book, as forensic anthropologist Sue Black looks at death in all its forms. She recalls how she got started...from a Saturday job in a butcher's shop and on to her first experience in the dissection lab. She recalls criminal cases she's worked on, her involvement in identifying bodies in Kosovo and tsunami-ravaged Thailand; she talks about different ways of disposing of the dead, looks at the latest developments in embalming, and considers her own thoughts on death as she moves towards old age. This could have been a dull scientific tome, but it's so alive with the author's own personality. Fascinating throughout.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book strikes a nice balance between the often tragic and cruel ways that humans meet their maker and yet throughout the book you have Professor Sue Black guiding you through it, providing insight, humanity and showing great respect and reverence for the dead people she encounters. Professor Black uses her own family history with death to add balance to the professional aspects of her life to great effect with a down to earth no nonsense approach that makes this book all the more remarkable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A stunning book. It incorporates the mechanics of forensic science - sometimes gruesome but always respectful and interesting - and a discourse on death and life. It brings some of the worst horrors of humanity up against the professionalism and compassion of those who deal with them. Highly recommended for anyone worn down by the cynicism of today's uncaring and sensationalist news reporting, and for those who have a fear of death.