Dead Center: Behind the Scenes at the World's Largest Medical Examiner's Office

by Shiya Ribowsky and Tom Shachtman

Book Overview

A city with eight million people has eight million ways to die

For fifteen years, Shiya Ribowsky worked as a medicolegal investigator in New York City's medical examiner's office--the largest, most sophisticated organization of its kind in the world. Utilizing his background in medicine, he led the investigations of more than eight thousand individual deaths, becoming a key figure in some of New York's most bizarre death...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061189405
• ISBN13: 9780061189401
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Worth a read

Dead Center covers a lot of ground - it's a compelling first-person account of the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, from scientific, professional, and personal levels, but also illuminating in its description of the Medical Examiners Office, forensic methodology, and relations between that department and the police. It does have a lot of material included for shock value, but it's not as much gruesome as breaking of taboos about discussion of these sorts of thing - and there's a fair amount of objectification and humor in those descriptions. There's also the occasional policy discussions on current practice and law regarding mortality reporting and other issues that relate to forensics - buried in the text but worth consideration. Recommended.

DEAD CENTER IS DEAD ON

I was captivated by this book from the moment I turned the first page. Mr. Ribowsky's experiences at the New York Medical Examiner's Office were gripping and most fascinating. The author shared an insider's view of a place most of us know very little about. Though sometimes graphic, the details were nevertheless riviting. From the harrowing descriptions of real life crime scenes, to the compassion Mr. Ribowsky showed the families after the horrific events of 911, Dead Center was hard to put down.

Captivating and extremely interesting!

Incredible insight into the untapped world of a medical examiner's work! I loved this book because although the subject can sometimes be morose, it was still written in a lighthearted manner with dashes of humor and intense detail. Shiya Ribowsky unveils the mysteries of how so many people who've lost their loved ones to tradgedies, can once again be at peace after determining who these unknowns are and where they came from.

One Mans Brave and Honest Experience of 9/11

Dead Center is a very, very honest book on 9/11. I enjoyed it start to finish. The author took you with him, step by step, on that fateful day. His honest rendition of what he and everyone around him had to go through is just unbelievable. To function on a day, when kaos is all around you, tell's us what these heros actually went through. I especially enjoyed his telling of his schooling and how he became a medical examiner. It is very refreshing for an author to be honest enough to share a part of his life with his readers, so that we may understand his feelings on that day. I would recommend this book very highly to anyone who wants the behind the scene truth of what went on at the Medical Examiners Office on 9/11. I also want to thank the author for being brave enough, to put into print and not sugarcoat the events of that day.

Informative, touching. Towards the end, gripping.

The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is the writing style. I'm a big Stephen King fan, so this poor guy is being judged against a master teller! There were parts that dragged a little, but by the middle of the book, I had a hard time stopping. I read "Coroners Journal" after it, well that book just pales against this one, style and content. If you are interested in forensics, the WTC, this will not disappoint.