I love dead things and forensics so I enjoyed this book. The fact that all the cases were set in Florida contributed to my enjoyment.

This book is more of a 3.75 for me. The cases were for the most part interesting and the scientific detail was fascinating, but I found I didn't care very much about the biographical elements. I also found the author quite hypocritical - he calls many people arrogant and then is very arrogant himself.

There are also some pretty dated views and language, which I expected, though the author is respectful of the dead. I felt quite uncomfortable with his views on suicide and if that is a topic you find difficult, you may want to skip chapter six.

Overall I liked this book, but I was expecting less biography and more case studies and I wouldn't say its the best book on the subject.

Not for those with a weak stomach, but I love this kind of stuff. It's why I majored in anthro. Which is doing me a world of good in real life...

I've been fascinated with forensic science for decades. This book was written before this topic became the TV staple it is now. There's a lot of great details on decomposition and the whole process of analysis. There are even two sets of photos in the book. I have the cover with a skeleton hanging next to the author.

He worked on some famous cases. Was President Zachary Taylor poisoned? Did a set of remains belong to the murdered Russian tsar and the Romanovs? Which set of bones truly belonged to Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru?

It's a memorable book and I paid attention. To quote from page 267: "Only hair plucked by the roots from the scalp can be tested for DNA with any real hope of success." I used that detail in the chapter "Murder Room" when I wrote my novel The Internet President: None of the Above so many years later.

There was one case that took a year and a half because there were so many bone fragments from multiple bodies. Each case has new interesting details and the book still holds up well today.

реальна судова антропологія не завжди така захоплива, як усілякі серіали з покійниками, але доктора мейплза доволі приємно читати, та й почуття гумору в нього хороше.

Most suicides are far better thought out than most pregnancies.

I always make a point of telling the airline ticket agent just how many skulls I have with me in my baggage—not to shock her, but to make sure that, in case the plane crashes, investigators will know why there were more skulls than passengers aboard. This is mere professional courtesy to my colleagues, who will have to pick through my remains in the event of an accident.

Although this book had plenty of interesting stuff, I found it a bit dry. I couldn't get into it.

It does not cease to amaze me that the truth, "Be sure your sins will find you out." can follow the lives of families and victims even to the grave.

I've read plenty of non-fiction books where I disliked the voice or the personality of the writer but never one when I hated it as much as I did here. It's not just the monumental pomposity and ego-centrism of the author who clearly saw this book as a chance to show off how excellent and better-than-anyone-else he is at absolutely everything he does (and score a point in some petty personal grievances on the side), it's the constant need to moralise, judge and present his really unpleasant views at every opportunity (usually prefaced by a statement like "I'm not an expert on this field so I can't really say much on the topic" and then proceeding to tell the reader why he thinks he knows better than the experts). It's the arrogance, sexism and overal unkindness, which don't really disappear even if I take into account that the book is three decades old. I'm just glad most of the topics discussed here were later addressed in better and more readable books.

Delectably detailed. Prose borders into beige territory at times.

Very interesting, but the author seemed very self-promoting and full of himself in several instances, which rubbed me the wrong way a bit