Working Stiff: 2 years, 262 bodies and the making of a medical examiner

Dr Judy Melinek has made a career out of working with dead bodies. As a forensic pathologist, she has probed and prodded corpses for clues that may reveal murder, suicide, a medical accident or a rare genetic disease This fearless memoir tells the gripping story of the young doctor’s ‘rookie season’ as a forensic pathologist, and the cases - hair-raising and heartbreaking and impossibly complex -  that shaped her as both a physician and a mother.

Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband T.J. and their toddler Daniel holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation - performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counselling grieving relatives.

Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of the modern world’s most arduous professions, and the unexpected challenges of shuttling between the domains of the living and the dead.

Dr Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorised depictions of autopsy work on shows like CSI and Law & Order to reveal the secret story of the real morgue and what really goes on behind the police tape.