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Title: Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death--An Exploration of the Haunting Science of Forensic Ecology by Jessica Snyder Sachs ISBN: 073820336X Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.83333

Rating: 5
Summary: A new appreciation
Comment: What a great book! I had a cursory knowledge about the Body Farm before reading this book, but afterward I have a much greater appreciation for all the research, effort, and dedication that goes into time of death determination. The book flowed very well, and I appreciated the real life examples. Next, I would like the author to do a book about autopsies. If you're the least bit curious about forensics, you should read this book.

Rating: 5
Summary: Ashes to Ashes
Comment: If you're not afraid to look death in the face, CORPSE reveals the beauty in nature's waste-not/want-not recycling of the human body ... or any carcass, for that matter.

Sachs's sweeping history of time-of-death research shows that forensic types have long shied away from such a hard, unvarnished look at death. As a result, pathologists have been hosing off the autopsy table some of their most valuable clues--namely maggots. And who would have thought that the weeds beneath a corpse or the leaves and vines above it could be used as clocks to measure time since death?

There's a certain, delicious irony in the fact that so-called "soft scientists" (ecologists, botanists, entomologists, and the like) are succeeding where all the high-tech forensic approaches have failed. Sachs describes this newest forensic approach in vivid detail and takes us on lots of actual cases.

Fun, enjoyable reading. The gruesomeness is well tempered by Sachs's appreciation for the beauty in nature.

Rating: 5
Summary: "We know WHO killed Cock Robin..., but WHEN did he die?"
Comment: "Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death" by Jessica Snyder Sachs, ISBN 0-7382-0336-X (hardcover). Perseus Publishing 2001 is a 270 page discourse (including 10 page index) written by a seasoned freelance science journalist. Sachs provides us with the historical interest in and the subsequent development of a multitude of devises used to arrive at the best 'Time Of Death' (TOD = Ger. Death) that ofttimes may reveal the why, where, when, whom (and whom not) of an unexplained death.

Sachs proffers physician Antistius of Rome as the first forensic 'pathologist' (mass murder plot on Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.), reviews the classic triad of rigor, algor, and livor mortis (reliability generally limited to 48 hours post death), and discusses ongoing search for those time markers which may critically span hours, days, weeks, months, years and decades using analyses of vitreous humor, cadaver impedance, and the singly and combined forensics of entomology, botany, and anthropology with a discussion of the "Bugs, Bones, and Botany" death-investigation workshops for cops and coroners devised by Byrd and Hall by the late 1990's.

Sachs examines the more recent pursuits to pinpopint time of death by probing and quantifying specific insect (e.g. Diptera) and plant DNA profiles, cadaver soil leachates, aroma patterns, relative ratios of amino acids and degradation product assays (e.g. cadaverine, putrescine, GHB and GABA) of decomposed flesh. A shrewdly-written succint but highly informative must read inquiry for those professing to be informed on 'Time of Death'. The price is right and I'd suggest the hardcover edition.

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