History and Philosophy of Science, Reviews, Sociology

Review: Stefan Timmermans, Postmortem

jacket imagePublishers Weekly recently reviewed Stefan Timmermans’s Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths. From the review: "Controversial award-winning sociologist Timmermans looks at the work of medical examiners in this intriguing study, which serves as a welcome antidote to the almost endless stream of true-crime memoirs by MEs across the country.… Some of the writing is not for a mass audience ("a meta-analysis of clinical trials trumps a randomized, double-blind clinical trial…"), but Timmermans’s detailed look at the notorious Louise Woodward ‘nanny trial’ and other topical subjects (such as organ donation) make this a must-read for anyone interested in learning what postmortems really involve."