Review: 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

You can tell the author put alot of time and effort into her research of Captain Lee, however this was not the book I expected.  The title indicates that it is about the invention of forensics, and it gets to that, but much of it focuses on Lee's life as a wealthy socialite and other people and topics that are sidebars that made have had an impact on her and her life, but they didn't feel relevant to the science and forensics.  If this had solely been about Lee then perhaps those chapters may have made a bit more sense but to package this as a book about the invention of modern forensics, some of the content didn't interest me.  I feel like in an attempt to honor Frances Glessner Lee, the author put in all of the information he had on her, and in turn the book feels a bit disjointed and overburdened by information.  Some will love all of the detailed information about her life as well as the science she devoted her life to.  It breaks up the more cold and clinical details of the forensics.  Personally I would have liked it to be a bit more focused on the science aspect.

The science and establishment of the Legal Medicine program at Harvard was very technical and detailed.  I had no idea that some of the issues that Lee was fighting then still exists today.  What we see on TV on popular crime shows isn't what really goes on.  I learned quite a bit about the establishment of forensics and what a medical examiner must do.  Captain Lee was a force to be reckoned with, she knew how to use her wealth and influence to get things done, and she accomplished so much in this field.  

Overall I do feel Goldfarb did what he set out to do, pay homage and honor Frances Glessner Lee by telling her story and letting the world know what she did for modern forensics.  It was well researched and well written.  I do wish it had been a bit more focused content-wise, but I did learn quite a bit.

I was provided a copy of this book through Sourcebooks Early Reads program in exchange for an honest review.   I did opt to listen to the final version of the published audiobook.

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