«Grippingly elegiac yet wonderfully life-affirming, full of pithy observations about the inexorability of death and the marvels of existence»

Felicia Yap, author of Future Perfect, Daily Express

«Praise for Dr Richard Shepherd»

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«Gripping, grimly fascinating, and I suspect I'll read it at least twice»

Evening Standard

«This sequel is more ruminative, more meditative . . . Full of sharp observations about what life and death do to the human body»

The Times, A BOOK OF THE YEAR

«Enlightening, strangely uplifting . . . Shepherd's final chapter on death itself is a meditation of great beauty and light which puts all the darkness of the previous pages into perspective»

Daily Mail

«Each chapter is like a finely crafted detective story in which he expands on the causes of death as revealed by the post mortem, or the hidden reasons that precipitated it. Some are ordinary, others extraordinary. Shepherd writes beautifully, and despite its subject, the book is very funny in parts»

Daily Telegraph

«A deeply mesmerising memoir of forensic pathology. Human and fascinating»

«An absolutely brilliant book. I really recommend it, I don't often say that but it's fascinating»

«Puts the reader at his elbow as he wields the scalpel»

The Guardian

«Fascinating, insightful, candid, compassionate»

Observer