The trials of being a forensic anthropologist: I recieved this book as a gift when I was in high school. I loved it then. Since I've recently finished a Masters in forensic anthropology myself, I decided to pull it off my shelf and give it another run through.

This is hands down the most honest and truthful illustration of what it's like to work in this field in a market flooded with a glut of products dedicated to the likes of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. Every Bones/CSI fan needs to read this book and learn about the un-glamorous parts of these careers. I went into my career as a forensic anthropologist with a realistic understanding of the job because of Dr. Maples' great prose. While the CSI wannabes whine about the maggots and the smell, I do my job.

This is a great book for anyone who is interested in forensic science and should be a required read in introductory courses.

(Amy) In an effiort to get me to read some nonfiction every once in a while, my husband tempted me with this book about forensic anthropology, knowing full well how much I love macabre details and medical mysteries. Well, it worked. I didn't just sit right down and read it, as I so often do with fiction, but I kept coming back to it and reading a chapter or two at a time, and it was fascinating.

I was not entirely without quibbles - I got the impression more than once that the author was playing a juvenile game of "let's see if we can get the reader to vomit", in that I could conceive of many less gratuitously icky ways to phrase quite a few things in the book without losing any information; also I thought his sense of self-importance was perhaps inflated an order of magnitude or so beyond what would be pleasant to share a room with. But by and large, it is a remarkable glimpse into forensic science, especially for a 15-year-old book, coming thus long before the age of CSI. Recommended for anyone who feels up to coping with vivid descriptions of dead bodies.
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Dr. Maples was doing forensics before it was on tv and "cool" so when I found this book, I had to read it. Dr. Maples was a great anthropologist, lots of excellent cases in this book, BUT I found his personality that came through as incredibly arrogant. And I caught him in an extreme exaggeration, which caused me to cast a jaundiced eye on him in general... I was also at the disinterment of Pres. Zachary Taylor in 1991. We had just moved to Louisville, I had a toddler, and was pregnant, but forensics junkie as I am, I went to the disinterment when I heard about it. There were not thousands of people and the big, crushing, irritating throng he claims there was. Two local tv stations had paid homeowners whose back yards backed up to the cemetery to let them set up over the high stone walls. They were barely noticeable. The rest of us, watching at a respectful (and roped off) distance in the cemetery proper, numbered MAYBE 75. So there it is. He also spent some time lamenting the disappearance of his craft, which I found a bit cloying, but this was before csi et al, so I will give him a pass on that. Otherwise, good book from one of the pioneers of modern forensics. ( )

Reviewed Sept 1998

I had meant to purchase/read this book on many occasions, but for some reason I held off. Finally after seeing it used as a textbook at Hartnell and read several reviews on Amazon.com I decided to send for it. And I'm glad I finally did. Maples is a very entertaining writer, he makes you think your reading a unique mystery. On many occasions I did have to stop and say "ewwwwww." His descriptions of the gore of death are meant for the strong stomached He has been able to handle the bones of some very famous people...Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man), Tsar Nicholas II and his family, President Taylor and conquerer of Peru Don Francisco Pizarro. in Males last pages he acknowledges that forensic anthropology is a very demanding and difficult profession, he hopes that the many students interested in pursuing this avenue will find classes available and people to hire them after graduation. Sadly he feels this to be the greatest challenge. Maples gives a lot more information than someone like me could be interested in, but if I needed to gather the information for research, his book would be certainly an excellent source. I would like to see more books by people discussing their careers as much of real life IS interesting. ( )

Fascinating overview of this man's career and the entire modern (and brief) history of forensic anthropology -- a very niche skill set that allows the experts to be involved in noteworthy cases, including the Romanov's, Zachary Taylor, Pizarro, MIA's, and several famous criminal trials. ( )