Working Stiff

May 5, 2014
In this engrossing tale of how Melinek became a forensic pathologist, she pulls back the sheet to show readers just what goes on after someone dies. Her caseload varies widely, and to help readers appreciate the job’s mix of art and science, she outlines basic procedures and gives examples of the cunning detective work so often required, regularly sprinkling in bits of trivia. Melinek recognizes that it’s sensational cases like murders that “everybody wants to hear about.” She indulges readers’ curiosity, but not at the expense of her larger story, which focuses on the breadth of her experience rather than a collection of anecdotes. This cumulative experience prepares readers for the book’s most trying passages: Melinek’s experiences working on victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. She respectfully and artfully relays the kaleidoscope of emotions that she and her coworkers endured as they struggled to first comprehend what had happened and then keep up with truckloads of bodies and body parts they were tasked with cataloguing. Though some sections call for a strong stomach, armchair detectives and would-be forensic pathologists will find Melinek’s well-written account to be inspiring and engaging.

Starred review from July 1, 2014
In this spellbinding memoir, forensic pathologist Melinek recounts everything (penis rings and all) she witnesses during the two years she trained in the New York City chief medical examiner's office. (Her husband, a stay-at-home dad and her Harvard English-major sweetheart, is her skilled coauthor.) She starts work just two months before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center but wisely saves that overwhelming disasterand the one-week-later anthrax cases and two-months-later American Airlines crash that kills 267for the end of her story. After 9/11, she and her 29 fellow medical examiners look at 19,956 pieces of recovered remains (598 are assigned to her), including a wedding band inscribed forever Kevin and a batch of nothing but feet. But before she gets to those details, she devotes most of her account to more typical deaths by natural causes as well as homicides and suicides (she autopsied many of each). Melinek is movingly empathetic toward the families of victims. After all, she stood in their shoes: her own psychiatrist dad killed himself. Today she continues to perform autopsies (more than 2,000 so far) while teaching at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. An unforgettable story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)