This is an easy read, with each chapter covering one investigation that the author was part of. However, I found the easy going voice, at times a little to glib about what was happening.

Also, there were one or two chapters that seemed incredibly tone deaf, specifically the chapter about doing research on native American skeletons, against the will of their of descendants. The condescending voice of the author really pulled me out of the book.

But overall, the stories are interesting, and while some of the science is outdated, Its an interesting topic. ( )

Some readers didn't like this book because of its length and lack of forensic depth into cases. I however did like this book. I think what most people are forgetting is that although anthropologists are scientific based they are also story tellers. I think what Mary set out to do was to tell a good story, I don't believe her focus was to write a science based book. So factoring that into my review I very much enjoyed it and look forward to reading Mary's other titles.
A nice little read in between larger titles. ( )

It was a nice overview of what a forensic anthropologist does and what they sometimes have to deal with in their work. It's a pretty fast read. I had just finished reading an unnecessarily lengthy novel before I picked up this book, so I appreciated the brevity. If you're looking for something more in depth, then this might not be the one for you. ( )

I gave this one 2 out of 5 stars. For me the chapters were too short and I was left always wishing for the stories to be fleshed out. Many were based around her childhood. An example would be that she starts one story out talking about how she's been sent on a mission to get horse bones for an insurance company that wants her to prove that the horses were starved to death. Within 2 paragraphs she tells us what her objective is and that she can't do it due to the fact that she really doesn't work with horses, but decides to collect the bones to send over to a friend. While collecting she notices a storm brewing and just like that, by the end of the paragraph (number 3 maybe it is?) we go into a long winded story about a time when she was little and a storm came and her aunt stopped a tornado with an ax, bean and bible. Then she finishes the chapter by saying they grabbed the bones, a tornado never came and the friend could not prove the horses were starved so the insurance company had to pay out.

Many chapters ran like this. No information about her profession or the case and how she worked it. When there was a case, she seemed to hold back, not giving details or giving one example of what she did and then filling the rest of the space with filler. On top of that those chapters were cut short making you want to know more.

In fact, I actually got on the computer and started searching for information, but got no where. The book was truly frustrating and I could only give it 2 stars because it was an easy read. ( )

Life as a forensic anthropologist