I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

The book was only okay. I love true crime books and knew who Captain Frances Lee Glessner was before starting "Unexplained Deaths". She is an interesting woman, and I love what she has contributed and her nutshell studies dioramas, but this telling of her store was mediocre ate best. The academic style of writing isn't bad but it makes it unaccessible to a general audience.

A fantastic and thrilling account about the mother of forensic science Frances Glassner Lee.

This is a book that everyone should read. Glassner Lee was a fascinating woman who was captured so well in this.

Not what I expected ... but I still enjoyed it I find reading about how Foreseics have changed and the biography was very interesting and now really want to go to the museum and see the mini dioramas. This book really explores the early years of how we got to the forensics of this day and age and goes into the ancestry and life of Frances Glessner Lee. The book was very well written and highly recommended if you have interests in this field

This piqued my interest as a criminology graduate - a very unusual and interesting take on crime scene analysis. Glessner was clearly a very intelligent woman though with little formal education, and I found her story engrossing though maybe a little too academic for my liking, which coming from a criminology graduate is a bit awkward! However, I think this is probably pitched at the more academic (and still studying) market, and none the less I enjoyed learning about this amazing mother of forensic science!

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book!

This book talks about the story of Captain Frances Lee Glessner, known as the mother of forensic science. While most of her achievements were overlooked in her life, she was written off as a rich woman who had too much time on her hands, this book highlights her contributions in the field, which she did without a high school diploma.

I do think this was well written and you really do learn a lot about the woman. However, we are all human, and unless you have a particular interest in forensic science this might get a bit boring at some point. That being said, I don’t care about this subject at all and still found it to be a decent read that didn’t get too technical. I do think that the author did include a lot about her life prior to her work that because a bit much; but that’s something a good editor should have guided him on.

I also do want to know what the difference is between this and the authors other book 18 tiny deaths; did that just republished with a different name?

As a young doctor Bruce Goldfarb worked at the Baltimore office of the Maryland Chief Medical Examiner and there he was shown the “Nutshell Studies”. This was a series of very small scale models of otherwise accurate crime scenes created earlier in the 20th century. They were made by a woman called Frances Lee Glessner and this book by Goldfarb is the result of his investigations into the life of this seriously extraordinary woman – and more specifically her interest in the development of competent examination of violent crimes by police, pathologists, coroners and legal officers. The mish-mash of procedures used across the various states and counties of the USA were (then as now) diverse and of varying competence. Through this abuses of privilege was common, corruption open and the scale of un-investigated murders (one might say the most serious crime) was shockingly high. Glessner, with no degree or legal training, but with inherited family wealth and contacts and sheer dogged persistence tried to tackle this many headed hydra. It should be said that she has set the standard for “best practice” in some places, but in other parts of the USA the lack of development is shaming to the nation.
Frances was born in the 1870s to a wealthy and cultured Chicago family. She would be expected to adhere to the social norms, education at home – albeit she was educated to an extraordinary degree that reflected her great intelligence – to be followed by marriage, children and a strict social life with a certain amount of “charitable” expectations. There was never any intention for education to lead further than this, so a university education was discouraged – however lack of a degree would be used to negate her plans in the future. Her marriage fell apart early and after divorce she was the stalwart of her family for the rest of her life – domesticity was core to this. But as early as 1893 she attended the World Exhibition in Chicago and there saw a display by the Paris Police Department of its evolving professionalism in tackling crime. Frontline services were moving into the modern world of response based on procedures, expertise and scientific evidence. But progress would prove to be slow as there will always be the issue of establishing good practice at all levels of the justice system and trained experts are not available overnight. There need to be enough competent trainers, enough places and critically suitable jobs for the trainees to move into and practice at the highest level of competence. This level of operation needs to spread throughout the world.
Goldfarb details the complexities of how Frances tried to address these issues. By the latter 1920s she came in contact with George Burgess Magrath a medical examiner. Together they worked to practically address the inadequacies. Frances would provide substantial amounts of money for the establishment of a post in training for Magrath at Harvard University, then other staff, facilities, library etc. But once it was there she had to continually fight over the decades that followed to ensure that they remained as intended and not diluted or asset stripped. Money and her influence would only go so far in a university as large, rich, misogynistic and hidebound as Harvard. But slowly under Magrath things started to improve, skilled trainees and ideas were dispersed.
Once Magrath retired in 1936 the whole issue rises again – Frances proposes to fund a new department of “Legal medicine”. But critically when a professor is needed there is nobody with appropriate skills. Alan Moritz, a pathologist, is appointed with the recognition he will need extensive specialist training. This in place, he really is not interested in legal medicine, but critically the good links between Magrath and Frances and understanding of a path of development are not there either. He will move on to fields new the specialist integrated scientific training will cease. Frances had established and continue to hold specialist crime scene training for police etc at Harvard for some years, but ultimately this too would be abolished. Her “nutshell” models used in these classes will be abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. Eventually they will be moved to the new Baltimore Office where the “new” standards have firmly taken root.
It should be said that substantial portions of this book are taken up with “procedures”- the infighting in the university to get things done. Much of the years and progress are thus focussed through Magrath and Moritz, but of course this is how a woman born in the Victorian period would be expected to gain her way through negotiation and influence. Frances was a woman of her time, albeit extremely intelligent and focussed on what she saw as important. For those who take the present for granted it will be an eye-opening book about how things really were and the daily battles a woman of vision might have to fight when she proposes her own ground breaking ideas of development. But if you are interested in the application of justice whether in the USA or elsewhere this is an important read. But be aware that “processes” are more important than Frances herself, so the book with regard to her could be seen as bloodless and lacking in the real woman.

I really loved this, and think it's a great book with a very interesting topic that many people would want to pick up! Fascinating read.

Excellent history of a previously unknown woman (to me anyway!). Incredible research interwoven with more anecdotal narrative. Accessible and interesting - even for those less interested in the macabre. Would be thrilled to read more. Brilliantly written on a fascinating point in history. If you're a fan of Mary Roach, I'd recommend this. Not identical in composition but adjacent to.

trigger warning
<spoiler> alcoholism, stillbirth, rape attempt, mention of: suicide, abortion, domestic violence, rape, corruption in the legal system </spoiler>

This is the story of Captain Frances Lee Glessner, how she wound up trying to reform the American criminal legal system and built the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths.

Side note: While I read this, my fiction pick was the Cherry Robbers, which also deals with white privileged women in a historical setting, and those two complimented each other very good.

So, as I said, we have this woman who grew up having all she wanted, but who was discouraged from getting training for a special profession because that's not how things were done. Instead, she developed hobbies: Mainly arts and craft and medicine. Otherwise she problaby would have become a nurse, but as things stood, she befriended a doc and learned from him, until she was so competent she would assist him with minor surgeries. For fun.
Thus she stumbles upon the atrocity that was the coroner system, where you would be voted and would not have to be competent at all. She saw a problem, saw that nobody cared and if something were to happen, she'd have to do it herself. And she went and did it as far as possible.

I came for the Nutshell Studies, which look like dollhouses but are materials for crime scene investigation training, from the tiny little details added everywhere to how the corpse looks. And I got a brief history of forensic medicine in the US, with short mentions of how things were done in Europe. What struck me is that there is no universal system in the US, every region has it's own thing going on, which means that the reforms Captain Lee Glessner instigated didn't happen everywhere.
I feel like through this, I also got insight into why the US police is the atrocity it is today. It's like one more puzzle piece was added.

Listen, if you have any interest in true crime, or women who did great things, this is a book for you. The author, who says in the last pages he's the current curator for the Nutshell Studies, did a tremendous job. This book is very accessible, and comes with tons of footnotes for further reading.
This was a great and informative read, without being boring.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

This was a very interesting read. I’m not really into forensics or true crime like some people but I really admired how this woman came to rise in her profession where women where taught to take a step back and just tend to their home life.
Premise
For most of human history, sudden and unexpected deaths of a suspicious nature, when they were investigated at all, were examined by lay persons without any formal training. People often got away with murder. That is, until Frances Glessner Lee.

Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962), born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she became the mother of modern forensics and was instrumental in elevating homicide investigation to a scientific discipline.

Frances Glessner Lee learned forensic science under the tutelage of pioneering medical examiner Magrath. A voracious reader too, Lee acquired and read books on criminology and forensic science - eventually establishing the largest library of legal medicine.
Very interesting read learning about Lee’s journey into forensics and breaking down barriers for other women.

Read through netgalley

I really wanted to like this as it covers two of my interests: miniatures and murder. I actually saw some of the nutshell studies miniatures at the death exhibition at the wellcome collection a few years ago but this is not the book for me.

The main character is someone who had a privileged life but the quote from chapter 2 “privilege is no immunity from misfortune” before then going on to talk about a kids hayfever is ridiculous and frankly insulting.

Didn’t really feel much of an improvement going on from here! But I did enjoy the pictures of the miniatures!
I think I might just be the wrong audience but I’m glad I got the chance to read it.

(Twitter)
‘Unexplained Deaths’ by @bruce_goldfarb is out in paperback. It’s the true story of how the modern practice of forensic science was pioneered by one woman, Frances Glessner Lee
@Octopus_Books

The Advance Of Forensics…
A fascinating and compelling biography. The story of forensics pioneer Frances Glessner Lee is told in this incredibly well researched and deftly written account. An intelligent and engaging read.

I really enjoyed this book, it was very well written, beautifully illustrated & is one I would definitely recommend

Unable to download this to my kindle which is a great shame as I was looking forward to reading this book.
It’s a topic I am interested in.