Title: OCME
Subtitle: Life in America’s Top Forensic Medical Center
Author: BRUCE GOLDFARB
Release Date: FEBRUARY 21, 2023
Genre: NON-FICTION, TRUE CRIME, BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS, FORENSICS
Number Of Pages: 240 Pages
Publisher: STEERFORTH PRESS
Received From: NETGALLEY & EDELWEISS
ISBN: 9781586423582
Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
*****************************
*****************************
*****************************
DESCRIPTION:
Go behind the scenes inside the nation’s preeminent Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where good people fight the good fight amid the tragedies and absurdities of our age.
Perfect for fans of Michael Lewis and David Simon (Homicide, The Corner, The Wire, We Own This City)
Real life is different from what gets depicted on procedural crime dramas.
Equipped with a journalist’s eye, a paramedic’s experience and a sardonic wit, Bruce Goldfarb spent ten years with Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where every sudden or unattended death in the state is scrutinized.
Touching on numerous scandals, including Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd and the tragic killing in police custody of Freddie Gray, Goldfarb pulls back the curtain on a pioneer institution in crisis.
Medical examiners and the investigators and technicians who support them play vital roles in the justice and public health systems of every American community. During Goldfarb’s time with the Maryland OCME, opioid-related deaths contributed to a significant increase in their workload. Faced with a chronic shortage of qualified experts and inadequate funding, their important and fascinating work has become more challenging than most people could ever imagine.
The public gets a skewed view of the relationship between police and medical examiners from procedural crime dramas, Bruce Goldfarb writes of his work inside one of America’s most storied forensic centers. We aren’t on the same team . . . We aren’t on any team. The medical examiner’s sole duty is to the deceased person. We speak for the dead.
*****************************
*****************************
MY REVIEW:
Exquisitely readable and surprisingly relatable, OCME Life in America’s Top Forensic Medical Center is a book I read in a single sitting. Despite needing sleep, I was unable to put this book down.
Author Bruce Goldfarb brings readers along with him for a detailed look at what life is really like in the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Think this book would be too macabre to read? You would be massively wrong. OCME does NOT rely on the glorification of blood and guts to sell books. It is so interesting that it simply doesn’t need to.
Full of eye-opening facts and fascinating details, OCME will open the eyes of its readers to the ridiculousness of red tape in any and every bureaucracy; even the bureaucracy of death itself.
Although this might not have been the author’s goal, he has nevertheless succeeded in bringing to light the horrific statistics surrounding many of the most concerning ways in which people have died over the past decade. Granted, the statistics used in this book only represent the state of Maryland, however, these are the same issues faced by most other states and cities in North America. For example, the author highlights the alarming number of people who have died due to the Opiod Epidemic.
This book will open people’s eyes to the importance of having skilled and highly trained medical examiners. The result of this will hopefully be that both taxpayers and politicians will allocate more money in their budgets to the OCME in their respective jurisdictions.
Some of the most shocking, and frankly disturbing, information contained within the pages of this book are the following facts:
[ ] “About half of the US population is under the jurisdiction of coroners and lacks access to qualified forensic pathologists…”
[ ] “In states including Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Idaho, Georgia, Colorado, and Nevada, elected coroners aren’t required to have ANY medical or legal training before they can certify the cause and manner of death.”
[ ] In Missouri, to serve as a coroner, the requirements are minimal. You only have to be 21 or older, and have to get more votes than anyone else. There is absolutely NO MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY. That is ridiculous. “If a person is elected coroner, they can crack open a beer and start signing death certificates.”
I rate OCME as 5 out of 5 Stars
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I recommend this book not only to fans of True Crime, but also to everyone who wants to be more informed about Public Health, Politics, and/or general nonfiction enthusiasts.
Reading this book and spreading the word about it could be the difference between a murderer being caught or going free. It just might be the reason a killer is caught and the lives of future potential victims are saved.
*** Thank you to #NetGalley and #Edelweiss for providing me with a free advance review copy of this book. ***
*****************************
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bruce Goldfarb was the executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Maryland, US, where the ‘Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death’ are housed.
He was the public information officer for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and trained as a forensic investigator.
Bruce began his career as a paramedic before becoming an award-winning journalist reporting on medicine, science and health. Through his work with the Nutshell Studies, Bruce earned the trust of Frances Glessner Lee’s family and caretakers of her estate, and was designated Lee’s official biographer.
To learn more about this author visit the following links:
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
https://brucegoldfarb.com
*****************************
*****************************
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER:
Since 1994, Steerforth Press has sought to publish books that are written well, intended to engage the full attention of the reader, and have something new or important to say. Our active backlist features timeless works of fiction and poetry, but our current program focuses exclusively on works of narrative nonfiction.
To learn more about this Publisher visit the following links:
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://www.steerforth.com
FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/steerforthpress
TWITTER
http://twitter.com/SteerforthPress
INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/steerforthpress
****************************
https://www.c-span.org/video/?508985-2/nutshell-studies-unexplained-death
*****************************
****************************
Amie's Book Reviews 