Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd has the bi-line ‘The Life and Many Deaths of Britain’s Top Forensic Pathologist’. I came across it on the bookshelf of a house I was staying in for a week. A lot of their shelves were filled with sci-fi and fantasy novels, which are a weaker area of my reading, not to mention most are pretty lengthy. I wanted to choose something I could hopefully finish within the week. I noted a huge collection of Agatha Christie’s but they weren’t calling to me. Then I spotted this.
Perhaps it being non-fiction and covering lots of different cases was what appealed. If I couldn’t finish it, I would at least be able to read a good few forensics cases that would no doubt be fascinating and revealing.
True Crime
I think I am fairly late to the true crime obsession. I am often hearing from others how much they love to listen to true crime and murder podcasts. Netflix and other streaming services, not to mention entire channels dedicated to crime and murder have thrived on our fascination with other’s people’s atrocities. For a long time the BBC’s Silent Witness was as close as I really got to forensics.
Now that I move around a lot more in my work, I often have access to other people’s streaming services. This has opened up the world of true crime documentaries, and now I am far more acquainted with murder!
A few years ago I suspect I would have passed on Dr Richard Shepherd’s book. I tend to read fairly little non-fiction or crime fiction, though the former is increasing. But today, with my increased exposure to watching crime documentaries and the curiosity of this line of work, it was most definitely calling to me.
Reader Review
Unnatural Causes is an easy-read, but not necessarily a comfortable one. It is well-written and broken down into layman’s terms, so that medical jargon, procedures and human biology is easy to understand. I learned about the three different types of decomposition – putrefaction, mummification and adipocere. I now understand more about the breakdown of cells and blood vessels, of rigor mortis and body temperatures. And, I have also learned a lot about knife wounds, asphyxiation, SIDS and heart attacks.
Dr Shepherd writes about all different kinds of cases – bodies range from newborn babies to the elderly, from the general public to high profile, from seemingly routine to mass disasters, terrorist attacks, massacres and serial killings.
As a reader, I welcomed learning his professional opinion on cases such as Princess Diana. Shrouded in such a media frenzy and fuelled by conspiracy theories, I found it refreshing to hear his opinion explained succinctly and with absolute clarity.
One case which I regret not knowing about was Joy Gardner, killed during a brutal deportation raid by police. I was six years old at the time, and it is understandable that I was shielded from it. However, I regret that hers is a name I should have known later in life before now. I was shocked and horrified to read what had happened to Joy, why it had been lethal and caused her death, and what reforms Dr Shepherd went on to make towards training safe methods of restraint.
The variation of the cases, charted from the 1980s to 2010s held my interest as you witness the changes and advancements in forensics and post mortem procedures. There are also plenty of revealing court room exchanges and the change in attitudes towards pathologists by defence teams. This all keeps things moving at a great pace and kept me wanting to return to the book. Some cases have great editing, and we are left waiting for trial, returning to the outcome some chapters later.
I did finish Unnatural Causes before my stay was up, and it is without doubt a fascinating read. Yes, there were some scenes of injury detail that made me wince, but there is no gratuitous gore. Respect for the dead, and for the job itself is maintained throughout, and it is a fascinating, highly educational read. I did find myself consumed by thoughts of my own mortality, and so might you(!) That said, I will definitely recommend it to others!
