Author – Professor Dame Sue Black
Narrator – Professor Dame Sue Black
Publisher – Random House Audibooks
Date – 2018
Length – 11 hours 20 minutes
Stars – 5/5
Blurb
Random House presents the audiobook edition of All That Remains by Professor Sue Black, read by the author.
Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab; at burial sites; at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment; and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains, she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed and what her work has taught her.
Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour in stories as gripping as the best crime novel. Our own death will remain a great unknown. But as an expert witness from the final frontier, Sue Black is the wisest, most reassuring, most compelling of guides.
Review
Being of scientific inclination and background myself, when I saw All That Remains and read the blurb, I knew instantly that this was a book for me. Professor Dame Sue Black is a forensic anthropologist and, like many of you, I had no idea what such a field entailed. I had heard of anthropology and forensics, of course, but the two together was new to me. It turns out that they actually play an important role in the discovery and investigation into some of the most heinous crimes. They’re not just researcher who look at old rotten bodies but they get hands on at the scenes of the most awful natural (and in more unfortunate case man-made) disasters in victim identification.
As the summary and title suggest, you might think that this book would be rather gruesome or lurid. I especially like the word macabre as is started in the summary, not a word you hear or see often but seems to cut directly into its meaning. Surprisingly, I didn’t find this book as ghastly as expected and it was full of interesting and gripping accounts of cases the author has worked on. She vividly retells her story of being called out to Kosovo in 1999, during the Kosovo-Serbia war, where she led disaster victim identification. She recounts one particularly moving story of a man who was driving with his family. All of his family members were shot and killed but in such a barbaric manner (if shooting another human isn’t barbaric enough) that they were unrecognisable as mere body parts. It was their belief and cultural norm that people must be buried as one after death to ensure a safe passage to the afterlife. Black and her team proved instrumental in identifying the remains and allowing the bereft husband and father to put his loved one to rest. This story really got me and highlights how a job, such as that of a forensic anthropologist, may seem unimportant or lacking societal impact however this could not be further from the truth. People are quick to that the doctor who has administered antibiotics in a timely manner to save a life but are less inclined to appreciate the efforts, struggles and sacrifices of others whose efforts often go unnoticed or work in such a field that is viewed as sad or upsetting.
A more light-hearting tale is about a local man in Dundee who had an obsession with donating his body to medical science. These people always amaze me. They make a conscious decision to advance science and train the doctors, surgeons, dentists and others of the future. I have had the privilege to be taught with cadaveric dissection at medical school and often wondered what my body would have been like in life. For Black, this truly happened where she knew this man for a long time who wanted to donate his body and eventually did. It must have been a surreal experience to say the least.
I do have one point of contention though. Black talks about her wishes with regards to the end of her own life and the things she would and would not want to be done. It is hugely important that we all think about this as death comes to us all. I value that she has had the courage to talk about this in her book and think she sets a great example. My bugbear is with her description of the dying patient being hooked up to drips and medications. She says she would want to experience death in its entirety without any clouding of her thoughts or judgements. I can relate to this and maybe it is just the way it is written. If you have ever been by the side of a dying patient who has intractable pain from a large abdominal mass, for instance, you would know that the syringe driver with morphine is not there for show, it truly is there to relieve symptoms that would be unbearable otherwise. Yes, not having any medications would be great but I think it is a little naïve, and in some ways insulting, to make a suggestion that sounds like there would be an option for some patients. It is somewhat akin to childbirth I suppose. Yes, a drug-free birth is ideal but there should be no shame placed upon those who opt for analgesia when they are in labour. I would be interested to hear anyone else’s thoughts on the matter?
All in all, this book was incredibly informative and well-written. What else would you expect from someone who is not only a Professor but also a Dame? I know a title shouldn’t sway your thoughts on a book but that is some achievement.
The Kindle Book Reviewer 