All That Stays: A Famend Forensic Scientist on Demise, Mortality, and Fixing Crimes

Great book
I read this book for the science, but got so much more out of it. Sue Black put so much humanity in this work. Well worth the read. I would suggest it to anyone but doubly so for people thinking of going into fields like medicine and forensics.

I could not put down this book! It’s a page turner for sure.
Sue Black is an amazingly gifted writer! I could not put this book down. It’s written professionally, scientifically, with immense respect both for the wonders of life, and for the intricacies and changes that occur to our bodies after death. Sue Black advocates for how important it is to help medical students by pre-planning (if wished) one’s own body as a donation to science, and she describes in introspective detail the gratitude felt by anatomy students who examine a deceased corpse, as they learn about the incredible intricacies of the human body. Sue Black vividly and humbly recalls her own experience as a medical student when she first learned how to dissect a donor cadaver, and learned about the human body, and the deep relationship of awe, humility, respect she developed with the cadaver she was assigned to.This whole book, even though it deals all the time with bodies and body parts (rotting, to a certain extent, most of the time), is never gross. The author is methodically descriptive, never offensive, and — at least for me as her reader — she really helped me think about my own mortality in realistic terms, as just one more fact of life, the terminal fact of life, in fact, and about how to cherish every living day on earth, and why. As she writes, we all eventually meet death, why not meet “her” (she engenders death as a female, several time in the book) prepared and serene for this extraordinary encounter which will happen only once for each one of us.Sue Black has a dry sense of humor permeating the pages. My thinking is that the best reader for this book is someone already relatively at peace with the concept of death, someone curious to know what happens biochemically to the human body once oxygen no longer flows to the cells, and someone interested in probing how each of us leaves a legacy when we die: a corporal one, and one of memories generated by all the various adventures we create when we meet other fellow human beings who cross our path on earth.I think a good subtitle for this book would be something along he lines of “How to Read a Dead Body Like a History Book about the Life of That Specific Person.”While Sue Black stays in the background in most pages (she is professionally a forensic anthropologist — I did not even know that such a thing existed before I read her book — and most of what she writes is, in fact, about her job and its challenges), the last chapter is finally devoted to herself: a portrait of what she has learned about life and about death, having been for decades in her profession.The author comes across as a woman you would want to meet and take a peaceful walk with one quiet afternoon, just chatting about life and death. This has become easily one of my favorite books. I can’t wait for Sue Black’s next book to be published.

Not really for me.
Too much of the same thing, although it is well written.

quite a book
Very interesting and at times very gruesome. The author seems to dwell on death as though it’s simply another phase of life. Isn’t death the end of life! You won’t forget this book if you read it through and you may disagree with her but it’s hard to ignore her honesty.

Professor Sue Black has written two books for the mass market. I read the second “Written in Bone” when it was published in 2022 and then wanted to go back and read the first, i.e. this one. The author is a forensic anthropologist and applies her skills to many crime scenes (usually but not exclusively murder scenes). In this book she looks back over her career and considers the many deaths she has encountered.I have see Sue Black talking to Val McDermid and am curious about the process of crime writer having access to real stories for their research. VM’s details are amazing and learning more about Sue Black gives plenty of clues about where the information comes from.This was first published in 2018, the book has 344 pages split into 13 chapters that are named to summarise what they contain.There is a beauty in how Sue Black writes about death and the body. Her first anatomy experience was life changing for her and to read her account of time spent with “Henry” is inspirational. I had already signed up to donate my body to science and reading this chapter confirms my decision.Her refreshingly straightforward approach to death is a joy to read. She is honest and pragmatic – ab attitude that would benefit many others in the medical world. She accepts death rather than fearing it which feels very healthy. This could be a tough subject but anyone who picks up this book is curious and will learn plenty here, hopefully resulting in an increased acceptance of dying, death and being dead.I could have read this book in a couple of sittings as it is so engaging. Sue Black has a conversational style that is sensitive and involving. She makes an intense subject easy to access and gives any reader a lot to think about. I tool several days to read the book as I needed to pause and consider what I had read.In each chapter there are topics raised that have been widely debated for many years – a national DNA database and sex vs gender as just 2 examples – Sue Black presents her views based on scientific application. She tells us the facts without adding fuel to the existing fire, then lets the reader make up their own minds. Her simple explanations are quite remarkable even when describing some complicated issues (I’ve never really understood the background of the Balkan wars but I know a bit more now).Great book.

Do jeito que eu esperava! Perfeito