Jessica Snyder Sachs Time of death: The True Story of the Search For Death's Stopwatch

By MARGIE THOMSON

When it comes down to it, death is a physical process and this book is a good reminder that, once the living have had their say, what we're left with is a body. Who would have thought that entomology would have much to offer the ghoulishly alluring science of forensic pathology? Yet it is entomology that is finally resolving one of the most difficult questions asked about murder: when did the victim die?

Sachs takes us on a tiki tour of history to see how the criminal investigators of the past have gone about determining this tricky fact and to show how inexact all their methods have been. Now, however, scientific and technological approaches are being given a huge boost by nature itself. Insects are turning out to be the best and most accurate indicators of time of death -it's all part of the "beautiful and terrible story of what happens to our bodies when we die". Not for the faint-hearted, but fascinating nonetheless.

William Heinemann
$49.95