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When given the opportunity to read a book titled “CORONER’S JOURNAL, it is easy to have preconceived ideas as to what to expect. Dr Louis Cataldie quickly dispels those ideas and takes the reader on a case-by-case journey through the daily work, concerns, and emotions of a coroner. Though this book at times is written in a very tender and thought-provoking way, Dr. Cataldie doesn’t mind speaking out and attaching blame where he feels it belongs. He does so not with malice or contempt but with the purpose of making us all think of the victims as human beings who were sons or daughters, wives, or husbands of someone who loved them and that their death matters. If they are victims of suicide, then what took them to that one point of darkness where there was no hope in sight? If they were victims of murder, then what caused them to be the victim; what was the killer’s motive? CORONER’S JOURNAL is also chock-full of interesting information for the mystery writer who wants to add verisimilitude. The reader learns what happens to the body when it arrives at the morgue. Both types of forensic death-investigative offices or systems – coroners and medical examiners – are explained, and you learn what items are needed by the coroner at crime scenes. Some are very interesting in their background and commonplace uses. A mystery writer, upon reading CORONER’S JOURNAL, will have livor mortis described in detail and learn how to tell its significance. Using mosquitoes, maggots, bones and arson in telling about the death of a victim makes you understand all the more how coroners have their own tools for solving mysteries. By using the process of fly development they can estimate the time of death. You can learn how to determine if someone has been killed by carbon monoxide poisoning and why women can consume more cocaine than men before it has a deadly effect. Cataldie is very astute, compassionate, and thought provoking in his journal entries. He writes his journal for two reasons, firstly to let his son know the work his father did and why he had to miss out on so many family occasions; and secondly as a means of coping with the burden of grizzly scenes where human beings are in a state of blood, guts, maggots, filth and sometimes simply skeletons. He shows the reader how he approaches each death with the idea and promise of finding out who the victim really was when they were alive, of letting the victim’s body speak to him to help point him to the killer, and to make sure that every piece of evidence is collected and preserved in order to catch the killer. The reader is allowed to see the emotional strain on policemen and emergency medical technicians who face carnage as part of their jobs, and how communities who are faced with not one but three serial killers at one time deal individually and as a whole with this nightmare. Yet, throughout the book there is a gentleness and feeling of hope that Cataldie softens what otherwise would be gruesome reading. It's well done, and many thanks to Cataldie and all who help solve the mysteries of those who do not want to conform to an ordered society.
Reviewed by Ginger K. W. Stratton, April 2007
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