What the Dead Know

A dedicated medical examiner from the City of New York shares fascinating, soul-searching stories that came to define her career—and her life. 

Barbara Butcher is one tough lady. Only the second woman ever appointed to serve as a death investigator in Manhattan, she helped solve crimes that could’ve calloused and darkened her heart many times over. However, in her fascinating, down to earth memoir, What the Dead Know, she tells riveting personal stories about investigating homicides, suicides, and tragic accidents that moved and changed her life in extraordinary ways.

 

Butcher came to the profession through a series of unexpected, fortunate events. A teen who suffered from depression and suicidal impulses--and experimented with drugs--she struggled for direction after high school. A woman she worked for at a nursing home took note of Butcher’s potential and encouraged her to become a physician assistant. College coursework on anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathology, and solving diagnosis puzzles lit a fire under Butcher’s ambitions. She did work stints in surgery and gynecology, and went on to earn a master’s degree in public health. Just as Butcher was en route to a cushy but boring career as a hospital administrator, her personal life unraveled. After she hit rock bottom, she found Alcoholics Anonymous and some career counseling. Butcher was deemed best suited for a career as a coroner.

 

Inquisitive readers--especially fans of mysteries and true crime--will be captivated by Butcher’s appealing, conversational writing style. She presents a trove of detailed, sobering case studies of how notorious investigations--including a chilling section about her work during 9-11--often wore her down while also expanding her skill set and intellect, enriching the depths of her character. 

 

What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara Butcher

Simon and Schuster, $26.99 hardcover, 288 pages, 9781982179380

Publishing Date: June 20, 2023

 

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different from) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (May 11, 2023), link HERE

A shortened version of this same review was published on Shelf Awareness for Readers (June 23, 2023). Link HERE to read that review.

Must Love Flowers

A gentle, heartfelt story about a grieving widow--and those suffering similarly in her orbit--who gets her life back on track.

Starting over is the central theme of Must Love Flowers, a tender, graceful novel written by Debbie Macomber. 

 

Joan Sample of Seattle, Wash., is a 54-year-old mother of two adult sons who has been widowed for four years. Since her husband’s passing, she’s become paralyzed by grief. Even her flower garden, once her pride and joy, has become grossly overgrown. When the town sends a condemning notice about the state of her property, she is finally propelled out of her emotional malaise. She joins a grief support group and sets out in search of hiring a landscaper “who must love flowers.” She enlists Phil Harrison—a quiet, private local. When she later crosses paths with Phil at the support group, she learns that he, too, is burdened by grief and loss of his own. As Joan’s broken heart begins to heal, she decides, on a lark, to take in a border, Maggie Herbert, a hard-working college student who longs to escape her abusive, alcoholic father. Thus begins a journey of second chances for each of these lost, wounded, and struggling souls. As they forge ahead in rebuilding their lives, friendship and romance find each of them along the way. 

 

Examining the gentle nuances of multi-generational smalltown life is what Macomber (The Best Is Yet to Come, It’s Better This Way) does best. In Must Love Flowers, Macomber’s heartfelt storytelling is on full display, showing how hope can rebloom when cultivated with kindness, caring, and love.

 

Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber

Ballantine Books, $28.00 hardcover, 9780593600559, 336 pages

Publishing Date: July 11, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (July 14, 2023), link HERE