Unnatural Causes

I read a review about Shepherd’s book in the London Sunday Times. I’m a sucker on the subject and bought the Kindle at an absurd price the same day.The first thing I noticed is that Shepherd is one hellacious good writer. From the first sentence and paragraph, I was reading a gifted writer. The writing just gets better as you progress. He incorporates his family, related social and technical debates in time and place, and everyday details in an extraordinary effective manner. He traces an increasingly vile trial evolution into withering defense 'personal incompetence' strategies.Shepherd grabs first sentence attention as he narrates his approach into Hungerford, England in his Cessna 170 in the current day. He has a panic attack. He writes one of the best written witnesses to an attack that I've seen in writing. Boom! He doesn’t call it a panic attack but that’s precisely what he describes I have the damn things at the strangest moments like this. After 30-some years as a leading forensic voice in some 28,000 autopsies, Shepherd begins here with his career recollection of his last visit to Hungerford.Shepherd writes his images precisely … first cadaver, first autopsy, etc. Fantastic fidelity. His style transports you into the seen without notice.A secondary theme is understanding the nature of "truth" and its perspective intensive demands to understand. "Truth" matures. Shephard is keen enough to notice the nuance.Here’s a genuinely unique 5-star read that's on the way to best seller. Here is the story of raw yeoman work. Life. Death. The author has the master skill of the storyteller and forensic expert. It’s a rare combo to produce such a grippingly interesting read.Surely among the years top non-fiction reads.

The descriptive blurb made it seem like the bulk of the text was going to be about the author being a medical detective with details about finding the cause of death in difficult cases. However, most of the book is about his personal journey in becoming and working as a pathologist as well as the PTSD it caused. I did learn something about how the UK handles autopsies, now and in the past.

Very easily read book with lots of details about front page as well as obscure crimes of murder we have all heard and read about. A book you can pick up and read a chapter or two and then go back to later - extremely entertaining. I would highly recommend!

This book was an interesting read.The documentation as regards his professional work, his patients, their stories and the processes behind his work is fascinating and really interesting. The author is very good at explaining his involvement in prestigious cases, and new processes in his field and I learnt a lot from reading this book, but I would argue there's a lack of responsibility throughout the book when he writes about things that didn't work out so well (his marriage, some difficult cases, etc)I didn't particularly enjoy learning about his personal life, and the more he discussed it the more frustrated I felt with him (refer back to the ownership comment above).I also felt uncomfortable when he was discussing colleagues of his and felt like he used this opportunity to complain about them.

Avery well written and insightful book on a topic that for most of us is somewhere "out there". It takes a specially skilled and dedicated person to do this specialty at the level Dr Shepherd did. Thank you for sharing the highs and lows of your life and work.

The career of a forensic pathologist from the UK was a fascinating read. Dr Richard Shepherd had a long and distinguished career. The cases were interesting, although at first I found him to be slightly arrogant but quickly realized how much compassion he had for the dead and how hard he tried to help answer the questions of their deaths. He suffered from PTSD because of things he has seen and shared all of this. I greatly admire that he realized this and sought treatment and shared his journey with us. Great read!

If you like true crime in any way, you’ll most likely enjoy this book. He tells stories behind all of the people he has to look at. It’s an easy read and you might also learn things you didn’t know before.

Not my normal reading material as it was chosen by a fellow bookclub member - but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read about such an interesting profession. It was a book that I always looked forward to getting back to when life dictated that I put it down.

So I had this book recommended to me by another medical colleague who raved about 'the honesty' and openness of the author and this juxtaposition with his scientific insight and knowledge. I have to say that I found his writing smug and somewhat arrogant in that he seemed always to have thought about critical difficulties ahead of them happening such as "I remember thinking to myself at the time of Rachel Nickell's death that it was unlikely that Colin Stagg was the murderer" but then doing nothing about it. Additionally, he seemed to get certain things absolutely wrong. The Sally Clarke case was the tipping point for me where Shepherd speaks highly about the now very discredited work of Prof Roy Meadows and others yet says next to nothing about the fact that Sally Clarke's conviction was overturned because their work was nonsense! He bemoans the fact that they were unlucky and how any professional would have made the same call, but this just sounds like an unwillingness to consider that they were plain wrong to me!If you want a book that pretends to be a casebook on a Forensic Pathologist's work, and you don't mind having to wade through some padding, this might be worth a shot. If you find it a bit tedious to have to read someone's opinions on matters through the lens of a white middle class male who is clearly very pro establishment and doesn't want to question or even consider what the alternative might be, steer clear.

I heard about this book when Jeremy Vine interviewed Richard Shepherd on his Radio 2 programme and was blown away by the discussion, so I immediately ordered a copy - what a good decision that was. Knowing very little about forensic pathology - apart from what I'd picked up on BBC TV's Silent Witness! - this is so well written that it all made perfect sense.When considered from a biographical perspective, about someone I'd never heard of before, it was a fascinating and very touching read.And it's a genuine 'page turner'. I have no idea how he managed to write this, let alone make it so fascinating, but whether you like adventure, biography, crime, pathos, anecdote, or just good writing, I highly recommend it.

This is the endearingly honest biography of a man who has spent his life cutting up dead people to find out how they died. Difficult to read in parts, Doctor Shepherd's professionalism and his evident passion for his job make this book fascinating rather than macabre.He talks about his more famous cases - Diana, Hungerford, 9/11, ISIS attacks, Shipman - but also about the minutiae of routine deaths. His own struggle to handle the impact of seeing so many terrible things (which eventually lead to PTSD) is sensitively discussed.I was educated, entertained and fascinated. I would recommend this highly to everyone.

Having had the pleasure of assisting you with note taking during my time in the police, you have always been a pleasure to work for. Nothing is too much trouble for you. You and your wife are very highly thought of by both myself and former colleagues. I wish you all the best.

Pedestrian style, padded with a boring marriage. Maybe four or five interesting cases, covered in a couple of pages each and off we go back to a humourless home.Plenty of judgemental observations on other professionals, but not acceptable when directed at the author.I have worked in mortuaries and can identify with some aspects of the narrative, but there is so much more that can be described in depth. I learnt nothing of forensic pathology from this book.He learns to fly, but we discover nothing much about it. He argues with his wife (or rather, he doesn't) and then goes to work, which he manages to make boring.