Trail Of Bones: More Cases From The Files Of A Forensic Anthropologist

Book Review by Jane
Mary Manhein is a forensic anthropologist and often works with police investigators on matching up missing persons reports with bodies and crime scenes. I saw Mary Manhein on CSPAN talking about this recent book, and she was interesting in that she was funny, articulate and in love with what she was doing. While waiting on this book to come in at the library, I read The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist, her first book of cases, and this book contains more cases of Ms. Manhein’s. Each chapter stands alone, like reading short stories.

I found it took awhile to get through these books, which would normally take just a short while to read, because I avoided reading them at night. Ms. Manhein’s style is straight to the point, and she really does not deliver many extra graphic details that we do not need to know. At the same time, often her cases involve children or young men or women, and can be disturbing. In the next breath, she can be laugh out-loud-funny, as in the chapter, “They Walk Among Us”, where she talks about Big Foot and aliens.

She also tells about some of the things she is called to do and places she has to go in order to accomplish her tasks. Some of the stuff she has to do reminds me of that TV show, “Fear Factor”. For instance, she actually found body remains in a tanker on a train. Her stories are easy to relate to, in spite of the subject matter. In the last chapter, I was reminded of where I was when I heard of the space shuttle accident in 2003. Ms. Manhein joined an organization that is under FEMA and was able to help with recovery. I imagine we have not heard the last from Ms. Manhein.

Jane.