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Title details for What the Dead Know by Barbara Butcher - Available

What the Dead Know

Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

by Barbara Butcher
Barbara Butcher
Audiobook
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3 of 3 copies available
"Butcher chronicles her career path and her journey to sobriety in unflinching detail, while her voice remains deliberate and measured, occasionally slipping into what sounds like a half-smirk when cracking a joke....She has a way with words, telling stories that are at turns hilarious, thought-provoking and, as might be expected, disturbing....This is a story of trauma, yes, but it's also a glimpse into the dark side of a city that most never see up close." —The New York Times Book Review
Now featured in the five-part docuseries on Netflix, Homicide: New York

A "remarkably candid and sensitive" (The Wall Street Journal) memoir of more than twenty years of death-scene investigations by New York City death investigator Barbara Butcher.
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner's Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—and she loved it.

Butcher (yes, that's her real name, and she has heard all the jokes) spent day in and day out investigating double homicides, gruesome suicides, and most heartbreaking of all, underage rape victims who had also been murdered. In What the Dead Know, she writes with the kind of New York attitude and bravado you might expect from decades in the field, investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, 680 of which were homicides. In the opening chapter, she describes how just from sheer luck of having her arm in a cast, she avoided a boobytrapped suicide. Later in her career, she describes working the nation's largest mass murder, the attack on 9/11, where she and her colleagues initially relied on family members' descriptions to help distinguish among the 21,900 body parts of the victims.

This is the "breathtakingly honest, compassionate, and raw" (Patricia Cornwell), "completely unputdownable" (Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone) real-life story of a woman who, in dealing with death every day, learned surprising lessons about life—and how some of those lessons saved her from becoming a statistic herself. Fans of Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and true crime won't be able to put this down.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 20, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797155814
      • File size: 281839 KB
      • Duration: 09:47:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 10, 2023
      Butcher, the chief of staff at New York City’s office of the chief medical examiner, artfully integrates her personal struggles into this riveting debut memoir that doubles as an inside look at the work of medicolegal investigators. As as a teen, Butcher dealt with her suicidal depression by turning to drugs. She blew multiple opportunities, including a college scholarship, but was transformed by a chance intervention: the director of a nursing home on Long Island who hired Butcher to help orient dementia patients suggested she look into becoming a physician’s assistant. That led Butcher to land an entry-level investigative position with New York’s chief medical examiner in 1992, and she eventually rose through the ranks to become his top aide. Butcher shares some of the grisly tricks of her trade, such as how best to roll over a corpse to look for evidence, and gravely recounts her more sensitive inquiries, including her efforts to identify remains from 9/11. Throughout, though, she employs welcome doses of dark humor and makes even the more complicated aspects of her work fully accessible to a lay audience. Readers interested in how real-life CSI functions will be rapt. Agent: Kathy Schneider, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 10, 2024

      Butcher, who worked for over two decades as a medicolegal adviser for New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, offers a self-narrated memoir that addresses sobriety, true crime, and the intriguing but sometimes heartbreaking ins and outs of crime scene investigations. During her time with the department, Butcher investigated more than 5,500 death scenes (680 of which were homicides), including double homicides, suicides, natural deaths, accidentals, and assaults on underage victims. Butcher candidly shares her stories, describing her work as well as her journey from alcohol-use disorder through depression and recovery. While Butcher's topic is unpleasant, grim, and often sad, she handles it with respect, honesty, and occasional humor. She narrates in an intimate, conversational tone that should resonate with those who appreciate both the scientific and the emotional aspects of true crime. VERDICT Butcher provides a nonsensationalist glimpse into the real world of crime scene investigations, serving as a knowledgeable yet sensitive guide. This is a title that could well become required reading in the field; share with readers of Paul Holes's Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases.--Scott DiMarco

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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