Teasing Secrets from the Dead: My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes

Teasing Secrets from the Dead is a front-lines story of crime scene investigation at some of the most infamous sites in recent history. In this absorbing, surprising, and undeniably compelling book, forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead. Emily Craig has been a witness to history, helping to seek justice for thousands of murder victims, both famous and unknown. It's a personal story that you won't soon forget. Emily first became intrigued by forensics work when, as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist--and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation. As a student working with the FBI in Waco, Emily helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, Emily landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backcountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, Emily has been regularly called to investigations across the country, including the site of the terrorist attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part--a dismembered leg--was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Through careful scientific analysis, Emily was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh. From the biggest news stories of our time to stranger-than-true local mysteries, these unforgettable stories come from Emily Craig's remarkable career.

About the Author :
Dr. Emily Craig holds a PhD in forensic anthropology and is the state forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the only such full-time state position in the country. She has been profiled on such shows as Fox's America's Most Wanted, A&E's Cold Case Files, the Discovery Channel's The New Detectives, Lifetime's Unsolved Mysteries, CBS's 48 Hours, NBC's Extra, and the History Channel. Visit her at EmilyCraig.com. Kathy Reichs's first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. To date, she has written twenty-two novels featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television's longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on Twitter @KathyReichs, Instagram @KathyReichs, or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks. Carrington MacDuffie is a recording artist and spoken-word performer whose voice acting has been featured in several independent films. Following a lengthy run with a New York vaudeville revue, she spent many years singing, writing, and producing multimedia performances with her seven-piece pop band. Her one-woman spoken-word show, On the Dreaming Earth, has been staged at various venues in Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest. MacDuffie has received several of AudioFile's Earphones awards, and KLIATT says, "MacDuffie's reading is amazing."

Review :
"Craig plays beautifully to the popularity of forensic anthropology, offering helpful tidbits on coping with maggots, handling a burned body, and the best way to boil a human head down to the bone." -- "Entertainment Weekly" "Intriguing...Craig does a good job of explaining her science to the layperson and portraying the nitty-gritty everyday realities of her job." -- "Publishers Weekly"