18 Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb

18 Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb ISBN-13: 9781492680475 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Sourcebooks Released: February 4, 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from NetGalley:
As America ramps up efforts toward victory in World War II, Frances Glessner Lee stands at the front of a wood-paneled classroom within Harvard Medical School and addresses the young men attending her seminar on the developing field of forensic science. A grandmother without a college degree, yet Lee's colleagues and students know her to be an extremely intelligent and exacting researcher and teacher. One determined to push the scientific investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old techniques and into the light of the modern day.

Lee's decades-long obsession with advancing the discipline of forensic science was a battle from the very beginning. In a time when many prestigious medical schools were closed to female students and young women were discouraged from entering any kind of scientific profession, Lee used her powerful social skills, family wealth, and uncompromising dedication to revolutionize a field that was usually political and often corrupt.


My Review:
18 Tiny Deaths is a biography of Frances Glessner Lee, but it's also about the beginnings of the medical examiner system and the teaching of forensic science to pathologists and police. The book covered the time period from around 1900 to 1962. The author talked about the origins of the corner system and the failings of that system. He then talked about Frances' life up to when George Magrath inspired her to put her money and her efforts behind promoting the medical examiner system. We learned about what he did as a medical examiner and some of the cases he worked on, especially cases that would have been misidentified without the training he had as a forensic pathologist.

While I was aware that Frances created small dioramas of crime scenes to help train police to observe a scene and identify clues, this book covered just how much influence she had on the development of forensic science in America. She used her money and influence to create a forensic pathology department at Harvard to train medical examiners, and she personally taught police the basics of forensic science.

The author used letters and other documentation to frequently quote comments people made and details of plans and arguments. While the book gave plenty of details about the making of the dioramas, I'd been hoping for more pictures of these dioramas than just those on the cover. (My review copy didn't contain pictures.) Overall, I'd recommend this biography to those interested in the beginnings of the medical examiner system and forensic science in America.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.