Excellent and fascinating cases written by a female anthropologist. Some of the paragraphs that introduce each narrative are very heavy with science and some may be bored with that, But I found it informative. I think it shouldn't have been placed in the beginning of the "stories" though because the temptation is to skip the heavy material and move on to the scene, case, etc. I found myself doing that. But I regained my discipline and read through. There are many readers who won't do that. Scientific information should be wedged in between story parts. Overall an excellent book.

I've been a fan of Sue Black since I first watched her on TV on History Cold Case, so when I saw that she has a new book out, I was naturally very interested to read it, in spite of not loving her first one for its heavy emphasis on autobiographical matter (merely a question of taste). And I'm very glad I did pick it up!

Following the sequence a forensic anthropologist works through the skeleton to find clues to its history and identity, starting with the head and taking us downwards to the feet, Black explains the development of each segment in the womb, touching, where it is of interest, on parallels to other animals or how we deviate from the biological norm, and why.
The main part of each segment is then given to how these types of bones can preserve clues to the lives their owners lived, and how they can help to establish identity or shed light on the possible cause of death. She concludes with real-life examples either from her own career or well-known criminal cases.

Black's writing throughout is clear and precise, as behoves a scientist; always managing to convey the matter at hand clearly and concisely without slipping needlessly into unnecessarily bloated 'science speak', but at the same time she is not afraid to confront her readers with the occasional technical term where she believes it will help to further their understanding. It's easy to picture her in court, giving evidence, and I can't help thinking that she must be very good at it, despite her protestations that she hates doing it (the two are, of course, not mutually exclusive).

If there was one thing I would improve about the book, it would be to include some picture material. There were several times where I turned to google to get a better idea of something she was describing because as a layman, I could not quite picture it.

Thank you to NetGalley to providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions herein expressed are my own.

Yes, this is a book about bones, but so very interesting. There is so much fascinating facts about various bones that are found in our bodies. Some case studies are also included which only adds to this book. I found this book very interesting and am very glad I was given the chance to read. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

I have so many things to say about this book, but I'll start off by saying that I made the mistake of starting this at 10 PM last night, and I stayed up all night to finish it. It's was certainly a quad-shot kind of coffee day for me this morning.

In this book, Sue Black isn't just writing about what our bones can say about us from a scientific perspective, she's telling us about a story that we ourselves don't even know we're writing. Each one of us writes an autobiography of sorts into our bones, and it's the job of forensic scientists to pick apart that story and translate it after we've passed. This book is captivating and brings an element of beauty to the study of skeletons and human history.

I half expected to open this and find a dry, science-based textbook that isn't really quite a textbook - if you've read any number of science-based non-fiction novels, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. I really honestly expected to read a few pages and then go to sleep and come back to it at a later time. And this is less a complaint about the dry type of science books (as I have learned some very valuable information from them) and more a complement to Sue's storytelling abilities.

As we progress through the book, it's separated into sections based on the bones. Sue not only explains the biology of the bone, how they're formed, different types of markings and characteristics that give away small details, but she also tells stories about previously solved cases involving those bones, bringing an element of True Crime into a book that I otherwise expected to be mostly based on characteristics of the skeleton.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can't wait for my copy of All That Remains (Sue Black's previous novel) to get here. As I'm sure you've guessed already, I couldn't help myself from ordering it after reading this one.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in True Crime, biology, forensics, or who wants to get into books on these topics but doesn't know where to begin. I myself struggle with overly technical or investigative True Crime novels and the way Sue broke down this book, including multiple different elements, kept me engaged and interested throughout the entire book.