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All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
Book of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary Awards
A CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the Month
For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, Kathy Reichs, 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.
A CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the Month
For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, Kathy Reichs, 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.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2018
2954 people are currently reading
29728 people want to read
About the author
Sue Black
20books454followersProfessor Dame Sue Black is one of the world's leading anatomists and forensic anthropologists. She is also the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. She was the lead anthropologist for the British Forensic Team's work in the war crimes investigations in Kosovo and one of the first forensic scientists to travel to Thailand following the Indian Ocean tsunami to provide assistance in identifying the dead. Sue is a familiar face in the media, where documentaries have been filmed about her work, and she led the highly successful BBC 2 series History Cold Case.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,607 reviews
June 13, 2021
I've read over 100 pages. I've learned all about the author's teenage years working as a Saturday girl in a butcher's shop, about her grandfather's death and her uncle Willie's. And I am bored. Worse, I am totally irritated by the extreme and extended characterisation of death as 'She' whom we should get to know better so we can understand "her". did this brilliantly in where she, Death, was a fully-fledged character and the linchpin of the story. The author has no such success in depicting death as a person.
For a professor of anatomy and forensic anatomy I had expected more. The best book I've ever read on anatomy and death (and philosophy, in the form of thoughful essays) is by . His is so stupendous, and so brilliantly written I was never able to come up with a review that would accurately reflect my impressions of it.
I might be out of step with other reviewers who loved this book, no problem, I have a bookshop, I'm used to my customers not liking my recommendations and me not liking what they read, that is why we have such diversification in book subjects. (Unless the author is chasing money in which case it will be a Twilight situation with a million teenage vampire romances.)
So, final judgement. I thought this book was awful.
For a professor of anatomy and forensic anatomy I had expected more. The best book I've ever read on anatomy and death (and philosophy, in the form of thoughful essays) is by . His is so stupendous, and so brilliantly written I was never able to come up with a review that would accurately reflect my impressions of it.
I might be out of step with other reviewers who loved this book, no problem, I have a bookshop, I'm used to my customers not liking my recommendations and me not liking what they read, that is why we have such diversification in book subjects. (Unless the author is chasing money in which case it will be a Twilight situation with a million teenage vampire romances.)
So, final judgement. I thought this book was awful.
April 27, 2018
A few years ago I saw that Desert Island Discs was interviewing Sue Black, Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Pathology at the University of Dundee... I read a lot of crime fiction, I've watched Bones and Silent Witness, I knew this was definitely going to be my cup of tea. [I urge you all to listen if you can ].
The programme was even more fascinating than I could have imagined and helped me discover more about both the process of identifying human remains and what kind of person it takes to do it. This book expands on much of what was in that interview, as well as adding more details about her life, work, and the cases in which she's been involved. It's a mish-mash of history, science, memoir, police investigations, cold cases, natural disasters, education and invention...not to mention some handy tips for would bemurderers er...writers about procedure. For example, dismembering a body in certain ways cases too much leakage, making it harder to move and there really is a best way to remove a human head. And don't forget about the smell if you try to hide body parts in your cupboard or beneath your driveway (yes, she's seen this). Since the bathtub is well sized for a human body, people usually use it to cut up their inconveniently sized dead so Scene of Crime officers start their search there as a matter of course. Apparently it's hard to cut up/saw through a corpse without scratching the bath surface and it's very difficult to clean all the necessary drainage parts. Sadly, she didn't suggest better alternatives but I have these snippets of advice mentally shelved in case I ever need them. Which I won't, obviously.
Some parts of the book are discussed with relative humour and she has a knack for particularly apt descriptions of body parts and fluids that you might not want to read around dinner time. Or any time. One particular story about accidentally getting something in her mouth during an autopsy was enough to make me put the book down for a solid five minutes. But i'm a hardy sort and it was too interesting to set aside for long. Her no-nonsense practicality towards death and the human corpse gives the whole book a grounding that lifts it out of some kind of macabre show into a very necessary and frank discussion about what happens when we're dead, whether that be by fair or foul means.
Other parts of the book have an altogether different tone. Though she always emphasises how imperative it is for those who work with the dead to show the proper respect, there's an added gravity in her tone when talking about the victims of atrocities in Kosovo. How can it be otherwise when you meet a man who lost 11 members of his family to an RPG, including 8 children, one a baby, and struggled to find pieces of their bodies to bury while bleeding out from being shot by a sniper himself? Her time there, as part of a team investigating war crimes, clearly had a significant effect on her as a person and that really comes across in the text. It's hard to read so how can we even imagine how it must be to experience? Both for those who suffered through it and those like Professor Black, who had to give these unidentified bodies their identities back and find the evidence necessary to prosecute the offenders. It's just another example of how incredibly important her work is.
My only criticism about the book is that I wanted more of it. There's so much in here that I felt Professor Black only touched the surface of what she could show and teach us, and I really hope she wants to write more for the public sometime soon.
ARC via Netgalley
**Anyone interested in her writing or interviews, see her page below:
The programme was even more fascinating than I could have imagined and helped me discover more about both the process of identifying human remains and what kind of person it takes to do it. This book expands on much of what was in that interview, as well as adding more details about her life, work, and the cases in which she's been involved. It's a mish-mash of history, science, memoir, police investigations, cold cases, natural disasters, education and invention...not to mention some handy tips for would be
Some parts of the book are discussed with relative humour and she has a knack for particularly apt descriptions of body parts and fluids that you might not want to read around dinner time. Or any time. One particular story about accidentally getting something in her mouth during an autopsy was enough to make me put the book down for a solid five minutes. But i'm a hardy sort and it was too interesting to set aside for long. Her no-nonsense practicality towards death and the human corpse gives the whole book a grounding that lifts it out of some kind of macabre show into a very necessary and frank discussion about what happens when we're dead, whether that be by fair or foul means.
Other parts of the book have an altogether different tone. Though she always emphasises how imperative it is for those who work with the dead to show the proper respect, there's an added gravity in her tone when talking about the victims of atrocities in Kosovo. How can it be otherwise when you meet a man who lost 11 members of his family to an RPG, including 8 children, one a baby, and struggled to find pieces of their bodies to bury while bleeding out from being shot by a sniper himself? Her time there, as part of a team investigating war crimes, clearly had a significant effect on her as a person and that really comes across in the text. It's hard to read so how can we even imagine how it must be to experience? Both for those who suffered through it and those like Professor Black, who had to give these unidentified bodies their identities back and find the evidence necessary to prosecute the offenders. It's just another example of how incredibly important her work is.
My only criticism about the book is that I wanted more of it. There's so much in here that I felt Professor Black only touched the surface of what she could show and teach us, and I really hope she wants to write more for the public sometime soon.
ARC via Netgalley
**Anyone interested in her writing or interviews, see her page below:
April 28, 2018
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I’m (yet again) finding it difficult to organise my thoughts surrounding this book. It’s an intense, sometimes clinical, portrayal of death in a very pragmatic and scientific way. It’s equal parts cold and without feeling in its descriptions of death, yet also simultaneously deeply emotive and moving. I found that at times I had to step away from it, because although fascinating, I found myself becoming too attached to the cases. I’m also deeply in awe of the author’s knowledge, enthusiasm and respect for the subject she teaches.
This is a very personal look at the many faces of death as described by one of Britain’s leading forensic anthropologists, and covers everything from the various ways a body can be buried or preserved, what happens to a body after death, and how forensic anthropologists can establish any number of things about an individual from their remains. It also goes into detail about various interesting cases the author has been directly involved with, and how forensics have helped to build a case or resolve a mystery surrounding an individual’s death or that of a major disaster. It was these chapters I found the most interesting, as it builds on knowledge the reader takes from earlier chapters. I do think it helped that I have an anthropological/medical background however, as some of the terms used are quite medical in nature.
The book also documents the author’s time spent in Kosovo and some of the atrocities witnessed there. I think it was these chapters that effected me the most deeply, as the descriptions of some of the scenes Sue Black is involved with are, simply, horrendous. However, it again highlights the invaluable work undertaken within the profession.
I suppose I was less taken with the small sections near the beginning of the book that seemed to be more like a familial memoir or history rather than delivering facts and experiences. Although there was always a reason for them, such as a device to further expand the readers understanding of various biological processes etc., I just wasn’t that taken with them in comparison to the later chapters.
That said, I really enjoyed this. It was informative, well written and interesting. As Sue Black herself states, ‘humans cannot fail to be affected by the stories of other humans�, and when you’ve lead a life as full as this, it’s hard not to agree. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.
I’m (yet again) finding it difficult to organise my thoughts surrounding this book. It’s an intense, sometimes clinical, portrayal of death in a very pragmatic and scientific way. It’s equal parts cold and without feeling in its descriptions of death, yet also simultaneously deeply emotive and moving. I found that at times I had to step away from it, because although fascinating, I found myself becoming too attached to the cases. I’m also deeply in awe of the author’s knowledge, enthusiasm and respect for the subject she teaches.
This is a very personal look at the many faces of death as described by one of Britain’s leading forensic anthropologists, and covers everything from the various ways a body can be buried or preserved, what happens to a body after death, and how forensic anthropologists can establish any number of things about an individual from their remains. It also goes into detail about various interesting cases the author has been directly involved with, and how forensics have helped to build a case or resolve a mystery surrounding an individual’s death or that of a major disaster. It was these chapters I found the most interesting, as it builds on knowledge the reader takes from earlier chapters. I do think it helped that I have an anthropological/medical background however, as some of the terms used are quite medical in nature.
The book also documents the author’s time spent in Kosovo and some of the atrocities witnessed there. I think it was these chapters that effected me the most deeply, as the descriptions of some of the scenes Sue Black is involved with are, simply, horrendous. However, it again highlights the invaluable work undertaken within the profession.
I suppose I was less taken with the small sections near the beginning of the book that seemed to be more like a familial memoir or history rather than delivering facts and experiences. Although there was always a reason for them, such as a device to further expand the readers understanding of various biological processes etc., I just wasn’t that taken with them in comparison to the later chapters.
That said, I really enjoyed this. It was informative, well written and interesting. As Sue Black herself states, ‘humans cannot fail to be affected by the stories of other humans�, and when you’ve lead a life as full as this, it’s hard not to agree. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.
December 3, 2024
خانم پروفسور بلک انسانشنا� پزشک قانونیه و این رشته رو تدریس هم میکنه� توی کتاب که سیزده فصل داره در مورد زندگی شخصی، مرگها� داخل خونواده� خودش، خاطراتش از کار و پروندهها� خاص و تأثیرگذارش، سفرش به کوزوو، ترسها� و دستاوردهاش میگ�
در واقع شغل اصلیش تشخیص هویت یک جسد هست ولی از اونجایی که با بدن انسان آشنایی کامل داره، تونسته در سایر زمینهه� هم کمککنند� باشه. مثالش هم پروندهها� مربوط به آزار جنسی کودکان بوده که توضیح مید� چطوری تونستن با بررسی رگها� دست یه شخص به این نتیجه برسن که طرف پدوفیل هست
پیشنهاد میکن� حتی اگه کتاب رو نمیخونید� این سخنرانی یک ساعته� رو گوش بدید. البته که سعادت رو در جهالت نمیدونی�
خاطرات نویسنده از کوزوو و جنایات صربه� جداً وحشتناک بودن. این از اون کتابا بود که واقعاً تحت تأثیر قدرت اراده و تلاش و توانایی یه آدم برای بهتر شدن دنیا قرار میگیر�
آدم پیش خودش فکر میکن� کسی که توی چنین زمینها� کار میکن� احتمالاً خالی از احساسات باشه ولی با خوندن نوشتهها� نه تنها میفهمی� اصلاً و ابداً اینطوری نیست، بلکه بسیار تا بسیار به بازماندهه� اهمیت مید� و به شدت روی برخورد صحیح و احترام به اجساد حساسه
طبق گفته� خودش، فقط خوب بلده که موقع کار حرفها� باشه
----------------------
چند وقت پیش یه کلیپ از یکی از مصاحبهها� ریچارد داوکینز دیدم که ازش در مورد دیدن نور و تونل و حس عروج و شناور بودن بدن توسط افرادی که تجربه نزدیک به مرگ داشتن، پرسیدن و داوکینز در جواب گفت که نوشتهها� خانمی به اسم سوزان بلک مور رو بخونید
خب من نخوندم ولی سو بلک توی این کتاب اشارها� به این موضوع کرد که دیدن این چیزها در اثر اتفاقاتیه که درون مغز و بدن میفته و چیز خیلی خاص و غیرعادیا� نیست و طبیعت انسانه که دنبال دلایل عجیب غریب بگرده تا به علم استناد کنه
----------------------
شبه وصیتنامها� هم که نویسنده توی فصل آخر نوشته بود رو چندین بار خواهم خوند
ترجمه� کتاب هم خوب بود
در واقع شغل اصلیش تشخیص هویت یک جسد هست ولی از اونجایی که با بدن انسان آشنایی کامل داره، تونسته در سایر زمینهه� هم کمککنند� باشه. مثالش هم پروندهها� مربوط به آزار جنسی کودکان بوده که توضیح مید� چطوری تونستن با بررسی رگها� دست یه شخص به این نتیجه برسن که طرف پدوفیل هست
پیشنهاد میکن� حتی اگه کتاب رو نمیخونید� این سخنرانی یک ساعته� رو گوش بدید. البته که سعادت رو در جهالت نمیدونی�
خاطرات نویسنده از کوزوو و جنایات صربه� جداً وحشتناک بودن. این از اون کتابا بود که واقعاً تحت تأثیر قدرت اراده و تلاش و توانایی یه آدم برای بهتر شدن دنیا قرار میگیر�
آدم پیش خودش فکر میکن� کسی که توی چنین زمینها� کار میکن� احتمالاً خالی از احساسات باشه ولی با خوندن نوشتهها� نه تنها میفهمی� اصلاً و ابداً اینطوری نیست، بلکه بسیار تا بسیار به بازماندهه� اهمیت مید� و به شدت روی برخورد صحیح و احترام به اجساد حساسه
طبق گفته� خودش، فقط خوب بلده که موقع کار حرفها� باشه
----------------------
چند وقت پیش یه کلیپ از یکی از مصاحبهها� ریچارد داوکینز دیدم که ازش در مورد دیدن نور و تونل و حس عروج و شناور بودن بدن توسط افرادی که تجربه نزدیک به مرگ داشتن، پرسیدن و داوکینز در جواب گفت که نوشتهها� خانمی به اسم سوزان بلک مور رو بخونید
خب من نخوندم ولی سو بلک توی این کتاب اشارها� به این موضوع کرد که دیدن این چیزها در اثر اتفاقاتیه که درون مغز و بدن میفته و چیز خیلی خاص و غیرعادیا� نیست و طبیعت انسانه که دنبال دلایل عجیب غریب بگرده تا به علم استناد کنه
----------------------
شبه وصیتنامها� هم که نویسنده توی فصل آخر نوشته بود رو چندین بار خواهم خوند
ترجمه� کتاب هم خوب بود
October 4, 2019
A mixture of Mary Roach's Stiff and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, this book discusses the author's personal interactions with the dead, but also what her work has taught her about what it means to be alive. This book is deeply poignant and Black writes very emotionally about humanity, but very scientifically about the field of forensic anthropology. It's beautifully done.
July 7, 2020
I'm not going to lie, but this book made my spine tingle, profusely. A book based on the matter of death, probably shouldn't excite and intrigue a being as much as it has, but that day, earlier this year, when I bought this book in Waterstones, I had my Mum with me at the time, and although we have similar tastes, she has been known to raise that right eyebrow at some of mine.
Sue Black had me hooked from the first page, and hell, that woman can write. Black writes truthfully, and sometimes painfully but it all has a profound impact on the reader, and that is what has made this an amazing read.
Does death frighten me? No, but I can't say I'm ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Black is a Forensic Anthropologist and a professor at Dundee University, and is obviously an expert in her work, and it is clear, that she holds a passion for what she does. It fascinates me and I'm always hungry for more information on this subject, but when push comes to shove, I don't think I could do that kind of work, day in, day out. It takes a certain individual, I think, which is the same with many professions.
Sue Black has been involved with scenes of mass fatalities, and identifying people along with the causes of their death. What surprises me, is that she can walk into an area where there are many fatalities, including women and children, who have been through needless suffering, but she is scared shitless of rats. Even the toughest of individuals are only human.
Black recalls her life, and how she came into the profession, and here we learn about her parents, and her Father's suffering with what we know today as dementia. The way in which she described this time in her life, had more of an impact on me that I had expected. I lost my Nan to dementia, and it was a long, painful five years that she endured it, until she died peacefully in hospital, next to my Mum. I can definitely relate to that pain. It is a dreadful disease.
Black seems to enjoy the dead, more than the living, and investigating mutilated limbs is her icing on the cake. She likes a challenge, and appears to have never turned one down, and to me, she is an inspiration. She is able to give people peace, especially when it is a murder enquiry, and the family wish to know what events unfolded at that time. That takes a certain skill, and that is admirable.
I'm so glad that I got around to reading this difficult, but powerful read, and I would definitely recommend it, as I think it might surprise people, at just how interesting death, and all the science surrounding it, actually is.
Sue Black had me hooked from the first page, and hell, that woman can write. Black writes truthfully, and sometimes painfully but it all has a profound impact on the reader, and that is what has made this an amazing read.
Does death frighten me? No, but I can't say I'm ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Black is a Forensic Anthropologist and a professor at Dundee University, and is obviously an expert in her work, and it is clear, that she holds a passion for what she does. It fascinates me and I'm always hungry for more information on this subject, but when push comes to shove, I don't think I could do that kind of work, day in, day out. It takes a certain individual, I think, which is the same with many professions.
Sue Black has been involved with scenes of mass fatalities, and identifying people along with the causes of their death. What surprises me, is that she can walk into an area where there are many fatalities, including women and children, who have been through needless suffering, but she is scared shitless of rats. Even the toughest of individuals are only human.
Black recalls her life, and how she came into the profession, and here we learn about her parents, and her Father's suffering with what we know today as dementia. The way in which she described this time in her life, had more of an impact on me that I had expected. I lost my Nan to dementia, and it was a long, painful five years that she endured it, until she died peacefully in hospital, next to my Mum. I can definitely relate to that pain. It is a dreadful disease.
Black seems to enjoy the dead, more than the living, and investigating mutilated limbs is her icing on the cake. She likes a challenge, and appears to have never turned one down, and to me, she is an inspiration. She is able to give people peace, especially when it is a murder enquiry, and the family wish to know what events unfolded at that time. That takes a certain skill, and that is admirable.
I'm so glad that I got around to reading this difficult, but powerful read, and I would definitely recommend it, as I think it might surprise people, at just how interesting death, and all the science surrounding it, actually is.
February 9, 2025
It proved to be a good choice to read All That Remains: A Life In Death a chapter at a time between my other reads. As even though I have an interest in this topic of Forensic Anthropology, this subject can get heavy, especially if one is dealing with their own grief. It is so important that the process of death isn’t mystified though, and topics surrounding death are talked about, and more normalised. As it is the one certainty for us all in life.
”To be perfectly honest, I have never been spooked by the dead. It is the living who terrify me. The dead are much more predictable and co-operative.�
The book begins quite slowly, describing the author Sue Black’s life growing up in Inverness and Dundee, and what sparked her interests in Forensic Anthropology and Anatomy. Leading to her getting a career in this field.
The pace of the book picks up during the chapters where she talks about her work, of course. She discusses cold cases of human remains that had been found, but yet to be identified. The main unsolved case highlighted here is ’The Man from Balmore�. At the end, there are further details about this case, including photographs of the clothing he was wearing, incase anybody out there has any further information. I think it’s human nature to be fascinated by unsolved mysteries such as this.
The processes of body decomposition, and of as death as a whole, are discussed in length. Also, there is a lot in here about donating the body to science after death. Sue expresses how she wishes for her body to be donated to the University of Dundee, but her husband is against it. There are some elderly people who visit the University wanting to donate their bodies once they pass away, but who want to view the cadavers there first so they can see the process themselves of what will happen to their bodies.
Overall, this is filled with interesting information, told with an intellectual perspective - both academically and emotionally - which is good when surrounding the topics covered in here.
Books about death do bring me a sense of comfort, and I will most definitely be reading more in the future, as I have done previously. They are always insightful and well-written.
5 Stars 🪦🥀💀🖤
”To be perfectly honest, I have never been spooked by the dead. It is the living who terrify me. The dead are much more predictable and co-operative.�
The book begins quite slowly, describing the author Sue Black’s life growing up in Inverness and Dundee, and what sparked her interests in Forensic Anthropology and Anatomy. Leading to her getting a career in this field.
The pace of the book picks up during the chapters where she talks about her work, of course. She discusses cold cases of human remains that had been found, but yet to be identified. The main unsolved case highlighted here is ’The Man from Balmore�. At the end, there are further details about this case, including photographs of the clothing he was wearing, incase anybody out there has any further information. I think it’s human nature to be fascinated by unsolved mysteries such as this.
The processes of body decomposition, and of as death as a whole, are discussed in length. Also, there is a lot in here about donating the body to science after death. Sue expresses how she wishes for her body to be donated to the University of Dundee, but her husband is against it. There are some elderly people who visit the University wanting to donate their bodies once they pass away, but who want to view the cadavers there first so they can see the process themselves of what will happen to their bodies.
Overall, this is filled with interesting information, told with an intellectual perspective - both academically and emotionally - which is good when surrounding the topics covered in here.
Books about death do bring me a sense of comfort, and I will most definitely be reading more in the future, as I have done previously. They are always insightful and well-written.
5 Stars 🪦🥀💀🖤
July 21, 2023
4, 0 � � �
(Audiobook)
This was a captivating reading, entertaining at times, and hard to hear when Sue described her experiences during warfare situations, and on that account, I took my time savoring this memoir. For those, like me, who are fascinated by Forensic Anthropology and Medicine, this is an intriguing book to experience.
(Audiobook)
This was a captivating reading, entertaining at times, and hard to hear when Sue described her experiences during warfare situations, and on that account, I took my time savoring this memoir. For those, like me, who are fascinated by Forensic Anthropology and Medicine, this is an intriguing book to experience.
May 17, 2018
Reading memoirs by people I have never heard of before is something I very much enjoy. The thought that each and every human being on this planet is leading their own life which is unique and distinct from all others is an unfathomable idea and yet so fascinating.
This particular memoir is written by Sue Black who is a Scottish professor of forensic anthropology and anatomy. Through her field of expertise, Sue finds herself confronted with death all the time. In All That Remains, she tells her readers what death has taught her, what impact her work has had on her as a person, and does this through a number of actual cases she has dealt with.
At first I was hesitant with this book, because there is just no way around it that death is a topic that easily gets gruesome. But this book turned out to be so much more intriguing than I could have guessed up front. What impressed me most is that Sue’s warm personality is clearly present from beginning to end. You get to know her as a loving mother, a no-nonsense woman, and she never fails to keep in mind morality.
Reading this book is like watching your favorite crime series only much more down to earth and more realistic. Just as thrilling, because Sue has experienced a fair share of ghastly situations, but shows you the relevance of her work, and why respectful treatment is important.
My rating for this book is 3.75 out of 5 stars. This book is perfect for you if you are an avid (true) crime reader, who is looking to expand their interest in the non-fiction genre.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. My review is susceptible to changes in the final copy of this work.
This particular memoir is written by Sue Black who is a Scottish professor of forensic anthropology and anatomy. Through her field of expertise, Sue finds herself confronted with death all the time. In All That Remains, she tells her readers what death has taught her, what impact her work has had on her as a person, and does this through a number of actual cases she has dealt with.
At first I was hesitant with this book, because there is just no way around it that death is a topic that easily gets gruesome. But this book turned out to be so much more intriguing than I could have guessed up front. What impressed me most is that Sue’s warm personality is clearly present from beginning to end. You get to know her as a loving mother, a no-nonsense woman, and she never fails to keep in mind morality.
Reading this book is like watching your favorite crime series only much more down to earth and more realistic. Just as thrilling, because Sue has experienced a fair share of ghastly situations, but shows you the relevance of her work, and why respectful treatment is important.
My rating for this book is 3.75 out of 5 stars. This book is perfect for you if you are an avid (true) crime reader, who is looking to expand their interest in the non-fiction genre.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. My review is susceptible to changes in the final copy of this work.
May 22, 2019
It's fascinating to read about Sue Black's work. The book is written well which makes most of it interesting to the lay person as well. How I wish she had left it at that. I could have read it with distance and be energised by it. Unfortunately she decided to bring in personal stories, how she experienced the death of her loved ones. I found this painful and upsetting because involuntarily I compared them with my own experiences. At some instant I even wondered if I should read on. I also had difficulties with the times she posed her opinion as fact, a trap for non-fiction authors. So a 4 star rating instead of a 5 star, which I would have given if she had stayed with what she knows best.
May 30, 2021
A bunch of notes on the author's personal life, private meetings with death, career and anthropology. A lot of interesting side stories, personal take on things we all don't really know how to take.
I loved that bit where the author works with a bunch of guys on the team and immediately fills in the maternal role. Gosh, that's something I regularly do whenever I'm the only female on the team :)
I loved that bit where the author works with a bunch of guys on the team and immediately fills in the maternal role. Gosh, that's something I regularly do whenever I'm the only female on the team :)
August 5, 2021
I happened to listen to the section where author and Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, Sue Black, narrates her first time cutting up a cadaver at the same moment as I was slicing up a steak for my very spoilt doggo's dinner. As a vegan I'm not quite sure which of the two was most distressing.
Asides from this moment of shared bloodshed between Sue Black and I, I had a great time with this book. I thought it tread the line between sharing general knowledge on the topic and moments from Black's own life perfectly, making this both an informative and very humane read, exposing an oft taboo topic in a conversational and enlightening manner.
Asides from this moment of shared bloodshed between Sue Black and I, I had a great time with this book. I thought it tread the line between sharing general knowledge on the topic and moments from Black's own life perfectly, making this both an informative and very humane read, exposing an oft taboo topic in a conversational and enlightening manner.
April 6, 2022
Absolutely fascinating and really well written.
April 22, 2022
4.5 stars. I just LOVED this book. Recommend for everyone who is interested in the morbid!
February 27, 2019
As is probably well established by now I love medical nonfiction so I was excited to pick this book up, especially because the publisher compares Black's writing to Caitlin Doughty and Mary Roach. When I think of Doughty and Roach the first word that pops into mind is "funny".
It's unfortunate because while this book is many things, it's not funny.
From the beginning it's clear that Black is not a forensic pathologist, determining causes of death via autopsy, nor an overly science-y person all together. Her first job was at a butcher shop and she carried the experience forward, studying anatomy in college and becoming a forensic anthropologist concentrating on the bones of the deceased.
The first third of the book reads like a memoir. In addition to telling us about her start in the field Black muses on the nature of death, the meaning of identity, and discusses the last days of three family members in great detail. There's nothing wrong with this per ce, but it's a hundred pages in the front that's completely separated from what I thought I was getting - crime! Analyzing bones! Maybe some gory stuff! If you don't know what's coming you may be tempted to give up here.
Around a third of the way in we finally get into some cases and the narrative takes off. A lot of Black's work revolves around disaster victim identification, or DVI. She has gone all around the world to help return those killed in war or disaster to their loved ones, from Kosovo to Thailand. As you can guess she sees the aftermath of horrific events, and the stories are quite touching (as well as possibly triggering, fair warning). I love that she talks about the cognitive and emotional difficulties of the job and the strategies she uses for her own mental health.
Luckily not every case is heartbreaking in the here and now. Black was on a BBC show where, along with a team of fellow scientists, they examined remains of people who lived hundreds of years ago in an effort to figure out who they were and how they died. She speaks of the interesting people she meets as part of her work in a university anatomy department, and delicate but not awful experiences like giving a potential full body donor a tour of the cadaver lab in use. And there are some stories from court, including the surreal experience of giving testimony and having no idea what to expect from either the prosecution or the defense.
I admire the work that Black has done over the years, from teaching to disaster response, from the BBC show to founding an anatomy lab. She also gets love because she shouts out the interpreters her team worked in with Kosovo and recognizes to the mental and emotional toll of communicating the words of those who have been through such horrors.
But when it comes down to it the book is split into two parts - memoir and philosophy in the first 100 pages, and your standard forensic nonfiction in the rest. The accounts of her parents' deaths can be skipped over completely with no loss, so I wonder why they're given so many pages in the first place.
The last two thirds make for a solid, but not outstanding, addition to a shelf about death. Just know that you can gloss over the aforementioned sections and you won't miss a thing.
Thanks to Arcade and Edelweiss for providing a review copy.
It's unfortunate because while this book is many things, it's not funny.
From the beginning it's clear that Black is not a forensic pathologist, determining causes of death via autopsy, nor an overly science-y person all together. Her first job was at a butcher shop and she carried the experience forward, studying anatomy in college and becoming a forensic anthropologist concentrating on the bones of the deceased.
The first third of the book reads like a memoir. In addition to telling us about her start in the field Black muses on the nature of death, the meaning of identity, and discusses the last days of three family members in great detail. There's nothing wrong with this per ce, but it's a hundred pages in the front that's completely separated from what I thought I was getting - crime! Analyzing bones! Maybe some gory stuff! If you don't know what's coming you may be tempted to give up here.
Around a third of the way in we finally get into some cases and the narrative takes off. A lot of Black's work revolves around disaster victim identification, or DVI. She has gone all around the world to help return those killed in war or disaster to their loved ones, from Kosovo to Thailand. As you can guess she sees the aftermath of horrific events, and the stories are quite touching (as well as possibly triggering, fair warning). I love that she talks about the cognitive and emotional difficulties of the job and the strategies she uses for her own mental health.
Luckily not every case is heartbreaking in the here and now. Black was on a BBC show where, along with a team of fellow scientists, they examined remains of people who lived hundreds of years ago in an effort to figure out who they were and how they died. She speaks of the interesting people she meets as part of her work in a university anatomy department, and delicate but not awful experiences like giving a potential full body donor a tour of the cadaver lab in use. And there are some stories from court, including the surreal experience of giving testimony and having no idea what to expect from either the prosecution or the defense.
I admire the work that Black has done over the years, from teaching to disaster response, from the BBC show to founding an anatomy lab. She also gets love because she shouts out the interpreters her team worked in with Kosovo and recognizes to the mental and emotional toll of communicating the words of those who have been through such horrors.
But when it comes down to it the book is split into two parts - memoir and philosophy in the first 100 pages, and your standard forensic nonfiction in the rest. The accounts of her parents' deaths can be skipped over completely with no loss, so I wonder why they're given so many pages in the first place.
The last two thirds make for a solid, but not outstanding, addition to a shelf about death. Just know that you can gloss over the aforementioned sections and you won't miss a thing.
Thanks to Arcade and Edelweiss for providing a review copy.
April 12, 2022
برای من، نشستن پای صحبت آدمه� وقتی که دارند داستان زندگیشا� را میگویند� همیشه بینهای� جذاب است. کلی لذت بردم از ریز و درشتِ اتفاقاتی که برای نویسنده که انسانشنا� پزشکی قانونی است پیش آمده. بیشتر از همه چیز، میزان شور و علاقها� به کاری که در طول زندگی انجام داده برایم تحسینبرانگی� بود. در نهایت هم خواندن از شیوه نگریستن نویسنده به مرگ در فصل آخر برایم تسکینبخ� و ستودنی بود:
پ.ن: ترجمه و ویراستاری واقعا کیفیت خیلی خوبی داشت.
دلم نمیخواه� آنقد� سریع بمیرم. در خواب هم نمیخواه� بمیرم. من مرگ را آخرین ماجراجویی خود میدان� و دوست ندارم این فرصت از من دریغ شود. هرچه باشد فقط یکبا� میتوان� تجربها� کنم. میخواه� مرگ را بشناسم، صدای آمدنش را بشنوم، لمسش کنم، طعمش را بچشم، هجومش را با حواس پنجگانها� تجربه کنم و در آخرین لحظات، تا جایی که برای یک انسان ممکن است، درکش کنم. زندگیا� از آغاز به سمت این واقعه حرکت کرده، میخواه� صندلیا� در ردیف اول باشد و نمایش را از نزدیک ببینم�
پ.ن: ترجمه و ویراستاری واقعا کیفیت خیلی خوبی داشت.
August 29, 2022
"... Maybe death is not the demon we fear. She does not need to be lured, brutal, or rude. She can be silent, peaceful, and merciful. Perhaps the answer is that we don't trust her, because we don't choose to get to know her. To take the trouble in the course of our lives to understand her.."
Really enjoyed this one, lots of interesting information on forensic anthropology and also on the role they play in natural disasters and wars/civil unrest. Also always enjoy learing and acquainting myself with that final step in our journey as humans. Highly recommend!
Really enjoyed this one, lots of interesting information on forensic anthropology and also on the role they play in natural disasters and wars/civil unrest. Also always enjoy learing and acquainting myself with that final step in our journey as humans. Highly recommend!
August 15, 2022
چه زمانی مرگت دیگر برای هیچ کس در هیچ جا اهمیت شخصی نخواهد داشت؟ برایان پتن در شعر "مدتها� مدید" میگوی�: " یک انسان تا زمانی زندگی میکن� که یادش همراه ماست." و من به شدت با او موافقم. در حالی که پا به سن میگذارم� اغلب اوقات لب باز میکن� و حرفها� پدرم از دهانم خارج میشون�. "تا وقتی کسانی روی زمین هستند که ما را به یاد میآورند� نمیتوانی� بمیریم."
با این چوب خط، "طول عمر" یا بهتر است بگویم "طول مرگ" بالقوه ما بیش از چهار نسل نخواهد بود، گرچه رد پایما� میتوان� در خاطرات اقوام، داستانها� خانوادگی، عکسها� فیلمه� و سایر مدارک بیشتر عمر کند. در خانواده ما، همنسلا� من آخرین کسانی هستند که پدربزرگ و مادربزرگم را به یاد میآورن� و بچههای� جوانتری� کسانی که پدر و مادرم را به یاد میآورند� چون نوههای� آنه� را ندیدند. از فکر اینکه با مرگ من مادربزرگم هم خواهد مرد، غمگین میشو�. ولی اینکه با هم میمیری� _من در بدن خودم، او در ذهن من_ آرامشبخ� است. احتمالا بعد از مرگ نوههای� کسی مرا به یاد نخواهد آورد، گرچه یک احتمال ضعیف هم وجود دارد که به اندازه کافی خوششان� باشم و آنقد� در کالبد تن باقی بمانم که خودم را در خاطرات نتیجههای� ثبت کنم. چه ترسناک! چطور اینقد� سریع پیر شدم؟
صفحه ۱۳۵
کتابی به شدت عجیب، جالب و برای من ترسناک...
با این چوب خط، "طول عمر" یا بهتر است بگویم "طول مرگ" بالقوه ما بیش از چهار نسل نخواهد بود، گرچه رد پایما� میتوان� در خاطرات اقوام، داستانها� خانوادگی، عکسها� فیلمه� و سایر مدارک بیشتر عمر کند. در خانواده ما، همنسلا� من آخرین کسانی هستند که پدربزرگ و مادربزرگم را به یاد میآورن� و بچههای� جوانتری� کسانی که پدر و مادرم را به یاد میآورند� چون نوههای� آنه� را ندیدند. از فکر اینکه با مرگ من مادربزرگم هم خواهد مرد، غمگین میشو�. ولی اینکه با هم میمیری� _من در بدن خودم، او در ذهن من_ آرامشبخ� است. احتمالا بعد از مرگ نوههای� کسی مرا به یاد نخواهد آورد، گرچه یک احتمال ضعیف هم وجود دارد که به اندازه کافی خوششان� باشم و آنقد� در کالبد تن باقی بمانم که خودم را در خاطرات نتیجههای� ثبت کنم. چه ترسناک! چطور اینقد� سریع پیر شدم؟
صفحه ۱۳۵
کتابی به شدت عجیب، جالب و برای من ترسناک...
June 29, 2021
3,5/5
Były ciekawsze momenty i takie, które bardzo mi się dłużyły. Ale tak czy siak polecam!
Były ciekawsze momenty i takie, które bardzo mi się dłużyły. Ale tak czy siak polecam!
October 25, 2022
Could not finish. I honestly can’t discourage reading any of her work enough. Even basic facts are wrong, and written with such conviction that I can’t believe anything else. The one that bothered me particularly is that she says that the surgeon Henry Gray, the author of Gray’s anatomy, was from Aberdeen. He is from/worked in London. There’s another surgeon named Henry Gray, from Aberdeen, who was also well-known, though mainly for his wound excision during the First World War, some 50 years after the other one died.
Having read 8 chapters, the majority of it is a glorified memoir of her work and serves solely to inflate her ego. It’s certainly not what it says on the tin.
I also saw her speak live, and the manner in which she catastrophised her experiences in Africa, and ridiculed the abilities of medical professionals dealing with minimal resources in the aftermath of civil war is appalling. She also informed a woman who said that she’d donate her body to a body farm that it would be disrespectful, and refused to consider that the person was quite happy to use her body in that way.
Having read 8 chapters, the majority of it is a glorified memoir of her work and serves solely to inflate her ego. It’s certainly not what it says on the tin.
I also saw her speak live, and the manner in which she catastrophised her experiences in Africa, and ridiculed the abilities of medical professionals dealing with minimal resources in the aftermath of civil war is appalling. She also informed a woman who said that she’d donate her body to a body farm that it would be disrespectful, and refused to consider that the person was quite happy to use her body in that way.
April 24, 2018
Briefly - fascinating, powerful and very well written. Without question this will be one of my best books of the year.
In full
Sue Black (Professor) is probably the country's leading expert in forensic anthropology. In this book she looks at her life in death. This is in part biography and in part an exploration of cases and events she has dealt with. She deals with "remains" - what is left when one of us die. Her expertise has been used in many a varied situations over the year. Murders and unknown bodies discovered are her bread and butter (did I really just write that!). However she has also dealt with truly horrifying events such as mass graves in Kosovo and the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
This starts off with a very good intro introduction to death in general and forensic anthropology in particular. I immediately for the writing easy and so the reading was too. Sue Black comes over as one of those rather rare experts who are good at communicating too. From the start there is humour and humanity amongst visceral scenes. The writing manages to feel objectively scientific and warmly human at the same time.
The book explores aspects of the author's life - part biographic and part recounting of significant cases she has dealt with. While I loved this book I frequently felt I wanted more, particularly about the cases. You are left with the feeling throughout this book that few people in the world know more about her subject than Sue Black.
There are a wide variety of cases offered to the reader in the course of this book. I'd rather people discovered the stories for themselves. However I would just say that the Kosovo chapter was far the hardest to read and made me shed a tear. It might well have been the one with most humour in too. Certainly the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Kosovo chapters show just how determinedly outspoken the author can be although she appears to be listened too increasingly as well.
Towards the end of the book there is a chapter that looks at what to most of us would be the horrors of Sue Black's work. The humanity, delicacy and sheer grit exhibited here and elsewhere in the book would alone have me recommending this book. It ends (other than a comprehensive index) with her thoughts on her own mortality. They came as little surprise to me but were worth the read too.
I simply found this book fascinating in the broadest sense of the word. Sue Black writes with a remarkably light touch, humorously at times however still gentle in the troubled and troubling parts. One of the best non fiction reads to me and it will certainly be a "best book of the year". If the subject matter interests you do read it - I would be surprised if many did not find it very interesting at the least.
Note - I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
In full
Sue Black (Professor) is probably the country's leading expert in forensic anthropology. In this book she looks at her life in death. This is in part biography and in part an exploration of cases and events she has dealt with. She deals with "remains" - what is left when one of us die. Her expertise has been used in many a varied situations over the year. Murders and unknown bodies discovered are her bread and butter (did I really just write that!). However she has also dealt with truly horrifying events such as mass graves in Kosovo and the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
This starts off with a very good intro introduction to death in general and forensic anthropology in particular. I immediately for the writing easy and so the reading was too. Sue Black comes over as one of those rather rare experts who are good at communicating too. From the start there is humour and humanity amongst visceral scenes. The writing manages to feel objectively scientific and warmly human at the same time.
The book explores aspects of the author's life - part biographic and part recounting of significant cases she has dealt with. While I loved this book I frequently felt I wanted more, particularly about the cases. You are left with the feeling throughout this book that few people in the world know more about her subject than Sue Black.
There are a wide variety of cases offered to the reader in the course of this book. I'd rather people discovered the stories for themselves. However I would just say that the Kosovo chapter was far the hardest to read and made me shed a tear. It might well have been the one with most humour in too. Certainly the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Kosovo chapters show just how determinedly outspoken the author can be although she appears to be listened too increasingly as well.
Towards the end of the book there is a chapter that looks at what to most of us would be the horrors of Sue Black's work. The humanity, delicacy and sheer grit exhibited here and elsewhere in the book would alone have me recommending this book. It ends (other than a comprehensive index) with her thoughts on her own mortality. They came as little surprise to me but were worth the read too.
I simply found this book fascinating in the broadest sense of the word. Sue Black writes with a remarkably light touch, humorously at times however still gentle in the troubled and troubling parts. One of the best non fiction reads to me and it will certainly be a "best book of the year". If the subject matter interests you do read it - I would be surprised if many did not find it very interesting at the least.
Note - I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
Read
December 15, 2018I'm not as blown away as many by this book. The accounts of anatomy and what happens after death are fascinating, and it's an interesting light on how to cope with a job that many people would find horrifying, but it's written in a very chatty way as many of these are--as if transcribed from a long talk in the pub rather than written--so a lot depends on whether the reader finds that endearing or otherwise. Generally I don't, being a huge exception. And that's a completely different sort of weird job that needed to be told like a shaggy dog story.
Loads of good stuff, very accessibly written, much of sense to say about death, and invaluable decomposition and dismemberment tips for writers to nick. But, just a bit heavy on the moralising for me, although I dare say you spend a lot of time thinking about morality in the author's job.
Loads of good stuff, very accessibly written, much of sense to say about death, and invaluable decomposition and dismemberment tips for writers to nick. But, just a bit heavy on the moralising for me, although I dare say you spend a lot of time thinking about morality in the author's job.
March 31, 2025
Dowiedziałam się rzeczy, które nie wiedziałam ze chce wiedzieć
December 21, 2022
‘All That Remains, A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes� by Sue Black is a fascinating autobiographical memoir. Dr. Black has done a lot of important work in her life, and her biography is on Wikipedia:
”Susan Margaret Black, Baroness Black of Strome, DBE, FBA, FRSE, FRAI, FRSB (née Gunn; born 7 May 1961) is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She is President of St John's College, Oxford."
She is an excellent writer, too. If she ever decides to write a literary novel, she won’t need much assistance from an editor or ghost writer! Interestingly, a lot of American and British mystery writers know her or of her, and some of them call her for advice in writing their fictional books of murderous antagonists.
I have copied the book blurb below:
”Book of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary Awards
A CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the Month
For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, Kathy Reichs, 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.
Readers who expect a precise in-depth recitation of her work on bodies will be disappointed. She details only the essential science, with edited descriptions of her examinations of bodies. I believe she edits the autopsies because they are of real people with living relatives. Besides, many of us ordinary general readers probably couldn’t handle too much of graphic medical narratives, although she does get into general descriptions of rotting bodies, and of bodies having been torn apart or damaged, and the smells and appearances of a dead body. She mixes quite a lot into her autobiography her feelings and thoughts - perhaps too often and over-the-top, imho. She really wants to put across to readers her concern for the proper respectful handling of the bodies. She never loses sight of the fact that the bodies were people.
She begins the book with her medical training in university, what happens in a dissecting lab and how she felt standing before her first body. She also describes her childhood, her family, and the deaths of beloved family members, her first funerals. It took time, but as she became more skillful, her reputation began to grow and she began to be involved in more prestigious and important investigations, such as in gathering evidence of war crimes through forensic examinations of mass graves in war zones.
The book has the feel of the author having referred to an exacting diary because it is so well-written, coherent, and put together. It could be mistaken for a first-person literary novel, actually, if it wasn’t labeled as a memoir.
The chapters are:
-Silent teachers
-Our cells and ourselves
-Death in the family
-Death up close and personal
-Ashes to ashes
-Dem bones
-Not forgotten
-Invenerunt corpus-body found!
-The body mutilated
-Kosovo
-When disaster strikes
-Fate, fear and phobias
-An ideal solution
-Epilogue
-The man from Balmore
There is an extensive Index.
”Susan Margaret Black, Baroness Black of Strome, DBE, FBA, FRSE, FRAI, FRSB (née Gunn; born 7 May 1961) is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She is President of St John's College, Oxford."
She is an excellent writer, too. If she ever decides to write a literary novel, she won’t need much assistance from an editor or ghost writer! Interestingly, a lot of American and British mystery writers know her or of her, and some of them call her for advice in writing their fictional books of murderous antagonists.
I have copied the book blurb below:
”Book of the Year, 2018 Saltire Literary Awards
A CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the Month
For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, Kathy Reichs, 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.
Readers who expect a precise in-depth recitation of her work on bodies will be disappointed. She details only the essential science, with edited descriptions of her examinations of bodies. I believe she edits the autopsies because they are of real people with living relatives. Besides, many of us ordinary general readers probably couldn’t handle too much of graphic medical narratives, although she does get into general descriptions of rotting bodies, and of bodies having been torn apart or damaged, and the smells and appearances of a dead body. She mixes quite a lot into her autobiography her feelings and thoughts - perhaps too often and over-the-top, imho. She really wants to put across to readers her concern for the proper respectful handling of the bodies. She never loses sight of the fact that the bodies were people.
She begins the book with her medical training in university, what happens in a dissecting lab and how she felt standing before her first body. She also describes her childhood, her family, and the deaths of beloved family members, her first funerals. It took time, but as she became more skillful, her reputation began to grow and she began to be involved in more prestigious and important investigations, such as in gathering evidence of war crimes through forensic examinations of mass graves in war zones.
The book has the feel of the author having referred to an exacting diary because it is so well-written, coherent, and put together. It could be mistaken for a first-person literary novel, actually, if it wasn’t labeled as a memoir.
The chapters are:
-Silent teachers
-Our cells and ourselves
-Death in the family
-Death up close and personal
-Ashes to ashes
-Dem bones
-Not forgotten
-Invenerunt corpus-body found!
-The body mutilated
-Kosovo
-When disaster strikes
-Fate, fear and phobias
-An ideal solution
-Epilogue
-The man from Balmore
There is an extensive Index.
January 28, 2020
Sue Black is a Scottish professor of forensic anthropologist and anatomy. This means she studies dead people.
Her actual case studies were quite interesting.
She gives us some backstory as to how she became interested in studying the anatomy of the deceased and also personal stories about deaths occurring in her family. She describes finding the bodies of missing people, how that is accomplished, how to pinpoint time and cause of death. Sometimes these people are known, sometimes they are not.
She includes a number of cold cases. Murders that have never been solved. I found this rather unsatisfying. I know her motive was to hopefully shed light on these murders and hopefully bring justice to the murderers and give the victims' families a sense of closure, but they leave the reader hanging, like an unresolved chord at the end of a symphony.
I will say that I cannot agree with her when she justifies tearing up several thousand trees to hopefully find the remains of a woman and her child who had gone missing over thirty years ago. I know the family would like to know what happened to them, but to sacrifice an entire forest? Was that going to bring the victims back to life if they found them?
And the worst is, they didn't. They found nothing resembling humans in the entire area.
Black also went to Kosovo to identify Albanian victims murdered by Zoran Stojanović.
She gets into some gritty detail as to how some murderers dismember their victims, planting the body parts in different places and how one reassembles the body and also how one can convict the murderer through their butchering technique (or lack there of).
What I did not like about the books was that she spent too many chapters philosophizing about life and death ("what is life; what is death...what makes a person a person...what constitutes identity et al...")
The other aspect of her book that I vehemently disagreed with and, in my opinion, had no place in such a book was her mini-dissertation on why she believes people should be able to decide their own life spans. She uses chilling terms like when someone "no longer has value" "and "doesn't want to be a burden" or really just doesn't want to live anymore. Shouldn't they have the right to decide to end their life legally and safely? Hmmm...legal and safe...where have we heard those terms before?
My attitude is, one does not have the right to determine when to die because that is God's right.
And if you don't believe in God, at least be wise enough to look at where such dangerous thinking leads. First you get to decide, but what if you are mentally incompetent? Who decides then? In Belgium and in Holland, it's the family members' and doctors' decision now.
And what if you want to live, but other people decide you have no value, that you're a "useless feeder" as Hitler termed it. What if your family can't afford the financial burden of caring for you? What if the government decides they can't fit your care into the budget? This is already the case with socialized medicine. Thousands of Canadians can attest to the fact that they are receiving treatment in the U.S. because they didn't qualify for treatment in their own country.
Would I recommend this book? I think there must be better books out there that could describe forensics and pathology in a more clinical, better written and interesting way without the philosophical meanderings.
Her actual case studies were quite interesting.
She gives us some backstory as to how she became interested in studying the anatomy of the deceased and also personal stories about deaths occurring in her family. She describes finding the bodies of missing people, how that is accomplished, how to pinpoint time and cause of death. Sometimes these people are known, sometimes they are not.
She includes a number of cold cases. Murders that have never been solved. I found this rather unsatisfying. I know her motive was to hopefully shed light on these murders and hopefully bring justice to the murderers and give the victims' families a sense of closure, but they leave the reader hanging, like an unresolved chord at the end of a symphony.
I will say that I cannot agree with her when she justifies tearing up several thousand trees to hopefully find the remains of a woman and her child who had gone missing over thirty years ago. I know the family would like to know what happened to them, but to sacrifice an entire forest? Was that going to bring the victims back to life if they found them?
And the worst is, they didn't. They found nothing resembling humans in the entire area.
Black also went to Kosovo to identify Albanian victims murdered by Zoran Stojanović.
She gets into some gritty detail as to how some murderers dismember their victims, planting the body parts in different places and how one reassembles the body and also how one can convict the murderer through their butchering technique (or lack there of).
What I did not like about the books was that she spent too many chapters philosophizing about life and death ("what is life; what is death...what makes a person a person...what constitutes identity et al...")
The other aspect of her book that I vehemently disagreed with and, in my opinion, had no place in such a book was her mini-dissertation on why she believes people should be able to decide their own life spans. She uses chilling terms like when someone "no longer has value" "and "doesn't want to be a burden" or really just doesn't want to live anymore. Shouldn't they have the right to decide to end their life legally and safely? Hmmm...legal and safe...where have we heard those terms before?
My attitude is, one does not have the right to determine when to die because that is God's right.
And if you don't believe in God, at least be wise enough to look at where such dangerous thinking leads. First you get to decide, but what if you are mentally incompetent? Who decides then? In Belgium and in Holland, it's the family members' and doctors' decision now.
And what if you want to live, but other people decide you have no value, that you're a "useless feeder" as Hitler termed it. What if your family can't afford the financial burden of caring for you? What if the government decides they can't fit your care into the budget? This is already the case with socialized medicine. Thousands of Canadians can attest to the fact that they are receiving treatment in the U.S. because they didn't qualify for treatment in their own country.
Would I recommend this book? I think there must be better books out there that could describe forensics and pathology in a more clinical, better written and interesting way without the philosophical meanderings.
February 20, 2019
This woman is an absolute inspiration!
If you have no aspirations to forensics or anthropology, or indeed anatomy, it matters not - Dame Sue Black is an inspirational person to all.
Driven, ambitious, remarkably stoical, and a wonderful writer, this is a brilliant account and brief introduction to her fascinating life.
It Raises many questions about mortality, science, crime solving and investigation.
Most of all though, it makes you think about life, death, and life after death.
This is an attitude changing book written by a wonderful academic.
Fascinating.
If you have no aspirations to forensics or anthropology, or indeed anatomy, it matters not - Dame Sue Black is an inspirational person to all.
Driven, ambitious, remarkably stoical, and a wonderful writer, this is a brilliant account and brief introduction to her fascinating life.
It Raises many questions about mortality, science, crime solving and investigation.
Most of all though, it makes you think about life, death, and life after death.
This is an attitude changing book written by a wonderful academic.
Fascinating.
November 6, 2019
Po okołu 150 stronach odpuszczam. To książka autobiograficzna Sue Black, w której niewiele znalazło sięmiejsca dla opisania pracy antropologa sądowego, za to historie rodzinne autorki ciągną się całymi rozdziałami.
Być może dalej jest lepiej, ale szkoda mi czasu na nudzenie się i przegryzanie przez warstwę anegdotek i wspomnień rodzinnych.
Być może dalej jest lepiej, ale szkoda mi czasu na nudzenie się i przegryzanie przez warstwę anegdotek i wspomnień rodzinnych.
August 17, 2023
I really enjoyed All That Remains. I found it to be a perfect blend of science and clinical explanations and personal, at times deeply moving, experiences with death and what happens after our passing.
There's eloquence but also deep compassion in Sue Black's writing. Her view of death as much as rooted in science it's also very human and respectful.
Beautiful and fascinating book.
There's eloquence but also deep compassion in Sue Black's writing. Her view of death as much as rooted in science it's also very human and respectful.
Beautiful and fascinating book.
August 20, 2018
Black, a world-leading forensic anthropologist, was part of the war crimes investigation in Kosovo and the recovery effort in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami. She is frequently called into trials to give evidence, has advised the U.K. government on disaster preparedness, and is a co-author of the textbook Developmental Juvenile Osteology (2000). Whether working in a butcher’s shop as a teenager or exploring a cadaver for an anatomy class at the University of Aberdeen, she’s always been comfortable with death. “I never had any desire to work with the living,� she confesses; “The dead are much more predictable and co-operative.�
The book considers death in its clinical and personal aspects: the seven stages of postmortem alteration and the challenges of identifying the sex and age of remains; versus her own experiences with losing her grandmother, uncle and parents. Black wants her skeleton to go to Dundee University’s teaching collection. It doesn’t creep her out to think of that, no more than it did to meet her future cadaver, a matter-of-fact, curious elderly gentleman named Arthur. My favorite chapter was on Kosovo; elsewhere I found the mixture of science and memoir slightly off, and the voice never fully drew me in.
Favorite line: “Perhaps forensic anthropologists are the sin-eaters of our day, addressing the unpleasant and unimaginable so that others don’t have to.�
The book considers death in its clinical and personal aspects: the seven stages of postmortem alteration and the challenges of identifying the sex and age of remains; versus her own experiences with losing her grandmother, uncle and parents. Black wants her skeleton to go to Dundee University’s teaching collection. It doesn’t creep her out to think of that, no more than it did to meet her future cadaver, a matter-of-fact, curious elderly gentleman named Arthur. My favorite chapter was on Kosovo; elsewhere I found the mixture of science and memoir slightly off, and the voice never fully drew me in.
Favorite line: “Perhaps forensic anthropologists are the sin-eaters of our day, addressing the unpleasant and unimaginable so that others don’t have to.�
October 15, 2019
If you want to read a compassionate, beautifully written and honest book about death and what it takes to confront it on a daily basis, looked at from all its angles, fearlessly and without leaving any details out, in my view this book is a perfect start.
There is something incredibly disarming about the way the author describes her fascination as well as her deep respect for the many bodies she has had to dissect, try and make sense of to reconstruct as best she could who the person was and what their life was like. Black's book has filled me with awe for her work as anatomist and forensic anthropologist and I was particularly moved by her words about what she would like the final hours to be like for her:
'I am only ever going to experience it once, after all. I want to be able to recognise death, to hear her coming, to see her, to touch her, smell her and taste her ... to understand her as completely as is humanely possible.'
There is something incredibly disarming about the way the author describes her fascination as well as her deep respect for the many bodies she has had to dissect, try and make sense of to reconstruct as best she could who the person was and what their life was like. Black's book has filled me with awe for her work as anatomist and forensic anthropologist and I was particularly moved by her words about what she would like the final hours to be like for her:
'I am only ever going to experience it once, after all. I want to be able to recognise death, to hear her coming, to see her, to touch her, smell her and taste her ... to understand her as completely as is humanely possible.'
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