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    Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
    Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
    Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
    Audiobook7 hours

    Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

    Written by Judy Melinek, MD and T.J. Mitchell

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Elicits fascination…

    For CSI fans, biology buffs, or those curious about morgues, “Working Stiff” is the memoir for you. While death may be a macabre subject, Melinek handles it with all the polite curiosity and objective grace of a scientist.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 12, 2014
    ISBN9781494573898

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    Reviews for Working Stiff

    4.5/5

    335 ratings37 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I saw this heavily marketed as a book about a medical examiner’s experiences working the victim’s remains post 9/11. One article hyping this book even gave a short excerpt about the condition 9/11 remains were coming in to be identified that sounded riveting. I was deeply disappointed to sit through the whole book just to find out the 9/11 part doesn’t begin until the 10th chapter of a 12 chapter book. The short excerpt I read in an article hyping this book was literally the only riveting part of the 9/11 chapter. Anyone here for a book about a medical examiner’s 9/11 experiences, I’m sorry to say it’s a total fake out and barely any of the book is about 9/11. The part that is about 9/11 isn’t nearly as interesting as the articles and interviews about this book led one to believe. I wasted my time so you don’t have to. I wouldn’t even bother with this book if I were you.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The book was a really well written. The narrator is too perky for the subject matter, though, and her “man voices” didn’t work for me.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I wanted, desperately, to love this book! I was very interested and tried to make it through. The voices the narrator uses to portray the different roles is unbearable to me. It reminds me of story hour for children rather than an adult, and extremely serious, themed medical story.

      If poorly voiced characters don’t bother you, I do think you’ll enjoy it. I think I will try the book version rather than the audiobook. ??
    • 4/5
      Good book - definitely interesting and the 9/11 tales were deeply felt and engrossing. I listened to this via audiobook and the only deterrent was that this voice actor/reader has literally zero concept of what a Boston accent sounds like.
    • 5/5
      couldn't stop listening. book written with great details. Never thought about how the 9/11 world trade center victims were taken care of. inspired by the care it took to share the stories of these heroes.
    • 5/5
      A different way to love true crime
      Highly recommended it
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Dr. Judy’s intelligence, perseverance, and work ethic are very inspiring! The book is also very informative overall.

      I will say if you’ve never studied any type of medical terminology, this book might be tricky for you to keep up with.

    • 5/5
      Great book. I have a perspective on what forensic pathologists deal with.
    • 5/5
      This was an awesome book. The author is a great writer and gives a insightful, interesting and intelligent overview of her experiences entering the field of, and working in, forensic pathology. An easy to listen to, yet stimulating book filled with the right amount of intellect, factual storytelling and personal feeling. Outstanding, well narrated and highly recommended. What a tribute to her profession and early life. Everything an audiobook should be.
    • 4/5
      No one part is a favorite. The description of the overwhelming task of identifying the World Trade Center victims was nicely developed by breaking down the process, as it was done.

      This book is not for the squeamish. I appreciated the frank expository treatment.
    • 4/5
      This book brought back a lot of memories from when I interned at a coroner's office. Good times! Because of my own quasi-experience in a Medical Examiner's shoes (at least, the tech helping the examiner out) I could relate to a lot that Judy covers. I almost wish I had read this book when I was interning. I learned a lot of things that could have helped me identify things, tips and tricks of the trade too. My biology background helped with the terminology so that the read was entertaining and fun, not a slog. Not that I'd recommend a book like this unless you have a particular interest in the subject. If you don't, or if you don't have a background in biology labs, morgues, coroner offices, etc. then this book will probably gross the hell out you. I found it interesting to read the parts about the 9/11 attack results. I don't always think of the coroner aftermath to big disasters like that, but it is such a big piece of the aftermath. A good memoir for those interested! I'm glad I got to it.
    • 3/5
      Started off in normal people speak, with some funny twists on phrases. Became less so and the events became hohum, even the WTC disaster.
    • 4/5
      Really interesting book. Loved the enthusiastic addition of the fascination with the science, particularly in contrast with the TV drama phenomenon about forensic pathology. That perspective of 9/11 from the perspective of the ME's was excellent. Toward the end, it began to feel a bit redundant (I'm clearly only an armchair scientist), but overall, a really good read.
    • 5/5
      Terrifically written. The author keeps you right by her side during some challenging, sometimes horrific procedures and emotional strain. I appreciated the graphic descriptions she related during her work on 9/11. That event in our lives should never be forgotten and the feelings never tamped down for fear of upsetting a reader. It offered an insight as to what the professionals endured during the worst tragedy of our lifetime, excepting the current tragedy playing out in the last four years of the Trump administration and his intentional ignoring of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to improve his golf game and lie to the people of the world.
      This doctor turned author, along with her husband provide a window into a profession that many wonder about but few ever come to know about. Her honest, raw emotion is palpable in the pages of her life. It’s also very apparent that she dearly loves her family and her husband provided her a wonderful support structure so she could learn her trade. Kudos to them both.
    • 5/5
      * Copy courtesy of NetGalley*Judy Melinek, M.D spent two years working and training as a Forensic Pathologist at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Working Stiff is her memoir of this period in her career.Melinek takes us through many real cases, including: accidents, murders, suicides, death from natural causes and more. She worked the sorting tables throughout the September 11 recovery and gives a touching yet harrowing account of the process of finding human remains, cataloguing them and returning them to family; anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.Working Stiff reads like an intimate conversation with Melinek. Every time I had a question, she answered it, and it felt like she was telling me about her work as we passed the time on a long car trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it.Judy's husband T.J. Mitchell has an English degree from Harvard and is a stay-at-home Dad. Why he's listed as a co-author on Working Stiff is beyond me. Presumably Mitchell read and edited many drafts of Working Stiff for his wife while it was being written, but don't many partners and spouses do this? He even had his own acknowledgements, argh!!This was a minor sticking point though, and I thoroughly recommend Working Stiff - Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner to those who enjoy forensics and are genuinely interested in the work of Medical Examiners.Best memoir of the year for me!
    • 5/5
      Excellent! I really enjoyed this biography of Dr. Melinek's training. I have read a lot of books about both forensics and corpses, there is really nothing left to shock me. But Working Stiff is highly entertaining and interesting giving wonderful insight into both the medical profession itself, teaching circumstances and mostly the work that a medical examiner does. We also meet Melinek's coworkers and learn much about different specialty sidelines in anthropological forensics: the bone experts, the brain experts, etc. I also enjoyed the way Dr. Melinek described how the ME's office truly works with law enforcement and when necessary the court system, giving TV viewers a much more accurate take on the relationship. Dr. Melinek wrote this book along with her stay-at-home husband (Harvard degree in English) and the interwoven story of a marriage where the woman is the bread-winner was also encouraging. They have a great storyteller's voice and I hope they colaborate on Dr. Judy's further adventures in forensics.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely fascinating, the narration wasn't bad either. I recommend it. There was a chapter that was devoted to the 9-11 tragedy. I enjoyed this aspect of the audiobook but I am glad the whole book wasn't devoted to that period.
    • 5/5
      This book was difficult to listen to in places, but the author's writing style was a delight. I enjoyed the light informative tone.
    • 5/5
      I’m a sucker for funeral director books and books by doctors who perform autopsies, so this was right up my alley. Judy Melinek was a Medical Examiner in New York City. In fact, she happened to be there during the Sept. 11 catastrophe, so she handled many of the identification cases in her lab. The book is pretty gruesome in places, but nothing the average reader can’t handle. Many of the cases are truly sad; some will make you angry, and others will just make you shake your head. All in all, it’s a good, interesting read. That said, I really didn’t read it. I listened to the audio version of it while I did my daily walking. Like many audio books, this narrator (Tanya Eby) was pretty good except when she tried to effect a male voice. And the crustier the male, the worse the voice. I’m not sure what can be done about narrators trying to convey opposite gender in their voices when there is no attribution in the text, but I wish they would figure it out somehow. Maybe the only solution is to have gender accurate readers narrate the book, which I know would cost a lot more. I can live with it.
    • 5/5
      Working Stiff was absolutely FANTASTIC. A narrative that explains everything in plain english after introducing the medical term for it, it still doesn't come off as jargony or dense.

      There were some tough bits. The unfortunate side effect of working in the medical world is that all of your patients are having their worst day. The more unfortunate luck of being a medical examiner in-training is that they are all dead--which is both easier and harder, in some ways.

      The author does have humor in all the right places. There's a section of the book dedicated to 9/11/2001, as she was living and working in Manhattan at that time. It is respectful while being informative.

      10/10. There are some nice things that the author ties up for us, and there are some things that made me see red (not b/c of the author, but humanity can be disgusting sometimes...) that were treated well in the narrative.

      I would recommend this to anyone.
    • 4/5
      If you can separate yourself from the emotions, which Melinek and Mitchell eloquently weave into the medical jargon, then you'll enjoy this. If you had any personal connections to 9/11, I 100% recommend skipping chapter DM01. I have no personal ties to the tragedy, but found myself tense, my gut clenching, and having to stop and process a few times.
    • 4/5
      So fun! This is the kind of Kim's Wheelhouse book that I love reading and telling people about despite the serious side eye I know will be coming my way.
    • 4/5
      Each body tells a story. This is the tale of a woman's decision to switch over from her residency as a surgeon to training as a medical examiner. You know CSI, Criminal Minds, the other CSI, Rizzoli and Isles, the other other CSI, etc.? Forget them. They fit almost as well into the fantasy genre as Game of Thrones or anything with werewolves or vampires. I grew up watching Quincy, M.E. I'm as fond of Jack Klugman from that show as I am of Oscar Madison. But I think it was mostly his fault that I was as shocked as I was – which was extremely – when I grew up a little and found out that doctors can't always diagnose illness or determine cause of death with certainty. Quincy and shows like it always made it seem like it was very basic puzzle–solving, like simple algebra: this symptom + another symptom – some other symptom = diagnosis; some were just more obscure than others, or perhaps there might be obscuring circumstances. Hey, I was young; I didn't quite have a handle on how vastly simplified the world is on the other side of the tv screen. It must be nice to live there, where the killer is always caught (in 48 minutes! Unless of course it's a featured serial killer who escapes and will be returning for the season finale) and the disease is always cured, or at least identified. Honestly, I remember being very confused and gobsmacked the first time I saw something that was, you know, real. On CSI, there is impatient sighing when they have to wait a few hours for DNA results. In reality, it's more like months. Whatever it was, it wasn't as real as this book. Turns out a tox screen can take a couple of weeks – and that shocked me. Need a copy of a report from another department? Give it a few months. It's been a little while since I bought this audiobook, so I don't remember whether the setting in time of the book had an impact on my decision to give it a try: Dr. Melinek changed her concentration from treating the living to examining the dead in 2001. She trained in New York City. If the idea that she was involved in the aftermath of 9/11 was one of the reasons I opted for the book, it was a moment of temporary insanity. To this day I flinch when a plane flies low. I live in Connecticut. I've visited NYC many times – and police and fire fighters from my area went to Ground Zero. I had friends and friends–of–friends who live and work in the City. I heard first–hand accounts, that weekend. It's emotional. Still. Of course. Between that and the basic subject matter, this book is not for the squeamish. But it's a story well told, with humor and compassion – and passion. Even while I was cringing, I enjoyed it.
    • 5/5
      Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell, Tanya Eby (Narrator) is a terrific audio book I picked up from the library! Wow! I have been a RN all my life and now retired but those faint of heart may not be able to read this. It is a bit detailed at what a medical examiner really does for a living and not the TV version. I was fascinated and horrified at some of the things that came through, maybe not at the bodies but what people do to people or what people will do to get out of work. This only covers the time she is at New York but it is during that time that the World Trade Center is hit. The tragic and gruesome chapters there were jarring. This is a book I am glad I came across. None of the details of the work bothered me having seen so much in my life as a nurse but just want to warn those with stomachs weaker than mine to be warned. Great book, hope everyone that can read it, will. It is the audio version and the narrator was perfect for this book, spot on!
    • 4/5
      Thanks to badkittyuno for writing this review or I might never have known about this great book. I started it on Sunday and finished it today, and thoroughly enjoyed most of it.

      Dr. Melinek is a forensic pathologist who spent two years as a fellow working in the New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Her time there was interesting for many reasons, including the fact that she worked there during the fall of 2001, when the city was dealing with deaths from 9/11, the Antrax attacks, and a plane crash in Queens.

      It makes sense that this book would interest me. A couple of years ago in a Pajiba comment diversion, I shared a bit about what I do for a living. I still do that work, and am still learning, so the parts of this book that I found myself highlighting were in the chapter on the response to 9/11. There were a few comments in there that I found to be pretty helpful and that I’m going to look into incorporating into our plans. So from that perspective, the book was quite helpful.

      But it was also well written. While I’m sure each chapter has some cohesive theme (as Dr. and Mr. Melinek don’t just write chronologically), I don’t think it was necessarily broken down into obvious chunks. And yet the topics all flowed well, and flowed naturally. The storytelling was engrossing, fascinating and, from my experience working with MEs, not fantastical or exaggerated at all.

      A couple of quibbles: autopsy reports are generally public information, so I recognize that Dr. and Mr. Melinek aren’t breaking any laws in sharing this information, but some parts felt a bit like a breach of ethics. Mostly, her interactions with grieving family members. Unless names were changed, or permission granted (which I doubt), some of the stories she told seemed like they could really cause additional pain for the family members. Who knows if any of them will read this book (probably unlikely), but it made me think a little bit of that ABC hospital documentary that showed the death of someone whose wife unsuspectingly saw it on TV a couple of years later. It was traumatic. Obviously stumbling on a TV show is easier than deliberately reading a book, but what if a friend or relative of one of the cases discussed reads about it? I’m not saying that the book shouldn’t be written, or that the concerns of a couple of people should prevent sharing information that sheds light on this very important field, but I did think about it.

      I’m also a bit frustrating with the Dr.’s constant reference to death by suicide as selfish. I cannot directly relate to her direct experience with death by suicide (her father’s), and she is certainly entitled to view her father’s decision as selfish, but that characterization always strikes me as reeking of victim blaming, and I found it especially off-putting when she projected her feelings about it onto others who died by suicide.

      Even with those reservations, I do still strongly recommend this book for anyone looking for a surprisingly quick read on this topic that is both interesting and thorough.
    • 5/5
      For some reason, I am fascinated by medical memoirs. This one is kind of on the other end of medical...more in the morgue, but still an interesting look at the life of a medical examiner.Judy Melinek and her husband, T.J. Mitchell have chronicled her two years working as a New York City medical examiner. She discusses some of her most bizarre and intense deaths during that time, including murder scenes, drug overdoses, and accidents. Life in New York City is never dull and each day was full of surprises.I mostly listened to this on audio, narrated by Tanya Eby. I had both the Kindle and audible narration but found it was easier to listen to than to read. I will warn you that the material is quite graphic. Melinek does not hold back with her descriptions of the death scene or examination of the body. If you are at all squeamish, this book would NOT be for you. But, I found it easier to listen to the graphic descriptions rather than to read them. I did find myself cringing a bit while driving though at the descriptions. Eby's voice was easy to listen to and even found ways to change her voice for the various medical doctors and law enforcement that were on each scene. Eby was actually an Earphones Winner for her narration of WORKING STIFF.Melinek obviously meets the various people after their life has ended, but finds ways to bring each of them to life by offering various background information either through the police reports or conversations with family. Melinek's own father committed suicide and she spends several pages discussing that impact on her life and attending other suicides while on her job. She even found a way to offer support to one grieving family which, I'm sure, gave her a sense of comfort as well.The most difficult part of the book to listen to was her chapter discussing her work after 9/11. Even when I started the book and knew what year she was working in New York City, it never even occurred to me that she would be working on September 11, 2001. So, as she started describing her morning I realized the horror she was going to take the readers through on the following pages...and it was beyond horrific. I can't imagine what the first responders, fire department professionals, and law enforcement went through in the days, months, and years following 9/11. What they had to witness and go through was disastrous and life-changing. Listening to this section of the book actually caused me to pull my car over as I was crying too much to drive while listening. This part of the book has left quite an impact on me and will forever change how I view 9/11.What most impressed me about Melinek was that she was able to separate her work life from her home life. During these early years in her career, she was a wife and mother to a toddler and then pregnant again. After viewing the unimaginable every day, she seamlessly went home and led the role of wife and mother. I, on the other hand, would have had a difficult time separating the two. She talked about her day just like any other spouse would and then got on with the business of motherhood. She is a great example for working parents in stressful careers.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of how Judy Melinek became a medical examiner and her experiences working in the OCME (office of the chief medical examiner) in Manhattan. Along with the usual stories of bizarre cases, Melinek talks about dealing with the families of the deceased and the frustrations of trying to get overworked detectives in the NYPD to pursue the cases she called homicides. This would be just an enjoyable book about an interesting profession had Melinek not been partway through her training on September 11, 2001. Located in lower Manhattan, the building she worked in became the central area for the processing of all the remains found in the wreckage of the twin towers. Her account of that experience made this book more substantial and much more difficult to read.
    • 4/5
      Very well written. If you wanted to know what it's like to be a medical examiner, this is it. Since she was working out of the NY medical office in 2001, she also worked on the 9/11 disaster.
    • 5/5
      This was an interesting look at forensic pathology that is layman friendly but pretty specific and accurate. I am a pediatric pathologist, a related but more hospital based subspecialty, so what I perceived and took away is probably different that most. As a fellow I did a rotation in the Dallas County ME suite and much of what I read resonated with my experience.
      Surprises-that she knew the importance of foot length in fetal pathology, that she used names of patients. I guess HIPPA laws do not apply to MEs. I was also surprised at the number of complete autopsies they did. Most ME I have known do more toxicology and external exam cases only.
      Not surprised- while most docs want to stay out of court the ME sure does not. There was essentially little to no discussion of histology. I would like to know what histology does on the decomp cases and how it may help. Also how do fellows finish cases when toxicology or other studies may not be done till after the fellow is gone
      Clearly Dr. Hirsch is a giant in forensics and he casts a big shadow. in a large way most doctors are products of our training. This is obvious in this book.
      All in all a very interesting look at forensic pathology with some insight into the 9/11 tragedy from an insider.
    • 4/5
      Two years in the life of a NYC medical examiner.

      “Don’t jaywalk. Wear your seat belt when you drive. Better yet, stay out of the car, and get some exercise. Watch your weight. If you’re a smoker stop right now. If you aren’t, don’t start. Guns put holes in people. Drugs are bad…Staying alive is mostly common sense.”