Teasing Secrets From the Dead

by Emily Craig, Ph.D.

     This book chronicles Dr. Craig's career as a medical illustrator-turned-forensic anthropologist.  She details her work on numerous homicide cases, as well as on the sites of tragedies such as the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, and the mass murder/suicide of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.  She has traveled to crime scenes located in the rural backwoods, on a steep cliff above a quickly flowing river, and even deep in an abandoned mine. Portions of the book are appropriately graphic, enough to convince me that I never want her job!  Even so, it is an interesting read, providing insight into the burdens and victories of the men and women who work in law enforcement, morgues, and at the sites of mass tragedies.
     One thing that struck me during the book was the amount of times she described the benefit of being able to work from touch, not from sight.  I suspect that she is at least partially a tactile learner, but her use of touch goes beyond just learning.  She also describes the role of intuition in creating sculptures and examining bones, which at times includes the need to backtrack by finding the scientific details that her brain unconsciously processed to lead her to a conclusion.  She references extraordinary coincidences or strokes of luck, in which a Christian can see the hand of God at work.