Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation—performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.
Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of America's most arduous professions. The body never lies—and through the murders, accidents, and suicides that land on her table, Dr. Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorized depictions of autopsy work to reveal the secret story of the real morgue.
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“Dr. Judy Melinek has a job few ofus can imagine doing. She’s a forensic pathologist whose tasks on the jobinclude investigating deaths, performing autopsies, and interacting withgrieving family members. Narrator Tanya Eby brings life to the dead and thestories their bodies tell. Eby captures Melinek’s intellect, conscientiousness,and dark wit as she confronts difficult situations such as examining victims ofmurder and suicide and inventorying body parts from the September 11 terroristattacks as well as from another plane crash a few months later. Eby presents awell-rounded picture of a wife and mother who happens to practice what manywould consider a dark profession. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
“Far from the magic we see on TV, Working Stiff describes forensic pathology in the real world. The book is a compelling and absorbing read.”
— Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance Brennan “Bones” series“Armchair detectives and would-be forensic pathologists will find Melinek’s well-written account to be inspiring and engaging.”
— Publishers WeeklyFar from the magic we see on TV, Working Stiff describes forensic pathology in the real world. The book is a compelling and absorbing read.
— Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance Brennan 'Bones' seriesJudy Melinek, MD, and T. J. Mitchell are the co-authors of the bestseller memoir Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner and the novels First Cut and the upcoming Cross Cut. Melinek studied at Harvard and UCLA, was a medical examiner in San Francisco for nine years, and works as a forensic pathologist in Oakland and as CEO of PathologyExpert Inc. T. J. Mitchell, her husband, is a writer with an English degree from Harvard, who has worked in the film industry.
T. J. Mitchell is a writer with an English degree from Harvard, and worked in the film industry before becoming a full-time stay-at-home dad. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Working Stiff with his wife, Judy Melinek.
Tanya Eby is a novelist and an audiobook narrator who has earned several AudioFile Earphones Awards and been nominated for the Audie Award. She has a BA degree in English language and literature and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine.