UBC: Sachs, Corpse

Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death--An Exploration of the Haunting Science of Forensic Ecology by Jessica Snyder Sachs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very good book about the emergence of botany, entomology, and other unexpected sciences into the world of forensics.

It would have benefited from a better copy-editor, to catch typos like "wholistic" and a number of others that made the book look just slightly less than professional. Especially, someone should have caught the error Sachs makes in assuming corpus delicti means the body of the victim, when it means no such thing (as Ann Rule is frequently at pains to point out in her books). The corpus delicti is the proof that a crime has occurred. The body of the victim is a particularly COGENT corpus delicti, but it is far from the only way to prove that homicide has taken place.

Aside from that background static of typos and misused words and errors that someone should have caught, this is a good, readable book. Sachs has a remarkable flair for describing flies and maggots in a way that's vivid without being revolting, and she conveys the enthusiasm these scientists have for their (sometimes grotesque) jobs even to a layperson who wants to stay as far away from flies, in all stages of their life-cycle, as possible. And the forensic work itself is fascinating.

(This book also gets a check in the box marked Places I Did Not Expect To See My Hometown Mentioned. One of Bill Bass' students, Arpad Vass, took his forensic work to ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), where my dad was a chemist until he retired and where I worked two summers as a secretary.)



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