What the Dead Know

Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

By: Barbara Butcher

Narrated by: Barbara Butcher

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A riveting, deeply personal memoir of more than twenty years of death-scene investigations by New York City death investigator Barbara Butcher.

Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—she loved it.

Butcher (yes, that is her real name, and she has heard all the jokes) spent day in and day out investigating double homicides, gruesome suicides, and most heartbreaking of all, underage rape victims who had also been murdered. In What the Dead Know, she writes with the kind of New York attitude and bravado you might expect from decades in the field, investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, 680 of which were homicides. In the opening chapter, she describes how just from sheer luck of having her arm in cast, she avoided a boobytrapped suicide. Later in her career, she describes working the nation’s largest mass murder, the attack on 9/11, where she and her colleagues initially relied on family members’ descriptions to help distinguish among the 21,900 body parts of the victims.

This is the fascinating and stunning real-life story of a woman who, in dealing with death every day, learned surprising lessons about life—and how some of those lessons saved her from becoming a statistic herself. Fans of Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and true crime won’t be able to put it down.

©2023 Barbara Butcher (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Just excellent in every way.

This book takes you on an amazing journey. Barbara Butcher opens her extraordinary life to the listener in candid and heartfelt detail. She had an exceptional MLI career (and a few other “wow” jobs) with so many interesting stories, those stories alone would make a riveting listen. Somehow, she manages to insert laugh out loud humor while delivering some shocking scenarios and she does it respectfully. But, truly, it’s the rest of the book she deserves even more respect and higher kudos for. Her personal struggles weave themselves throughout the book and she opens her very soul to us. Her candor allows us to know that it’s possible to fall into darkness and claw your way out again. And that you can do it more than once if you have to. This book will be so important for so many others who are struggling through painful times. A sober reminder, no pun intended, that we should not judge others. It also serves to remind us of the incredibly difficult and traumatic work that has been done (and continues to be done) by our first responders. There is just so much packed into this book, it’s “awesome” - and that is probably one of the few times that overused word is actually appropriate.

A book about death, but mostly life

This is a revelation of death. It’s also a touchingly honest portrait of an extraordinary life.
I can’t wait to read it again.

Captivating & inspiring

It’s a rare book that I start recommending to friends & family members even before I am a quarter finished. I love this book that much.

I heard Barbara’s interview on NPR and enjoyed that so much that I pre-ordered the Audible version the same day. She did not disappoint. I was amazed that she narrated the book personally; I thought she did a very good job. What was equally amazing is she had different stories in the book than what she told in the NPR interview. One can only imagine the hundreds of stories she left out!!

I enjoyed her personal narrative, what she overcame to achieve a life she loved, and finally how difficult it is to move on when your life & sense of self/ worth is wrapped up in your job, and suddenly that job is taken away. That was truly inspiring. Equally captivating of course were her on the job stories, personal & professional progression, and the emotional toll “a first responders job” took (9/11 especially). After 9/11 and now COVID-19, I think more Americans are more sensitive toward, and appreciative of, our first responders. I think this is an excellent reminder this includes more than firemen, police, and frontline healthcare workers.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for Audible listening.

A story straight from her heart

She pulls no punches when talking about her life, or the job she loved. Highly recommended.

I wished there was more!

Barbara is a great storyteller and has led a very interesting life. I have a feeling she's probably one of those people we all know that you say constantly, "You ought to write a book!" There was a lot more to this book than I anticipated. I really thought it was only going to be a memoir about death investigators. In and of itself would be cool, but there was much more. HIghly recommend!

This had it all…

I don’t give many 5-star reviews across the board. I sort of “save” them for books that REALLY set themselves apart. This book did that and a whole lot more. What else could we ask for ask readers, especially of this niche of the genre, than what Ms. Butcher turned in here? As a reader I want to be taken away, I want to feel, I want the book to not end, I want to feel like I know the author of a memoir, and I want to experience something along with them. She took me along with her thru her life and it was so REAL. Like her best friend it’s almost like I’ve been talking with her on the phone thru it all for years. She bares all. All her mistakes, all she’s done wrong, tried to fix, how things affected her along the way, and she also wasn’t afraid to tell us what she was good at. She didn’t give herself enough credit imo on that front. Heart is something you can’t teach, and I’ve always told my own children that their heart will take them further in this life than a degree will. This is a perfect example of that. Although Ms. Butcher does dawn an impressive education it was evident that it was her heart that drove her thru her career. The stories of driving to death scenes were so well-written in the small details that you felt like you were standing in the circle of cops sipping a coffee and chatting with them. There were many stories! She made it known that she felt each one for what they were. Where there was anger, where there was loneliness, sadness, greed, hatred…all the “reasons” for a death were chewed on and left you feeling what was experienced at each scene. You roll with her thru the changes in her career. She was so open with how she was feeling thru all of life’s different paths. By the final 1/4 of the book just like everyone else she struggled when certain things ended, changed abruptly, or became tiresome. But what a fighter! God Bless her for that and the example she sets here for all of us along our personal journey. This is the rare book where I felt throughout the read that I knew the person telling the story, and I related to her in many ways. We all will. Some will complain here in the comments about the Alcoholics Anonymous aspect of the book but to them I say “really? Was it THAT big of a deal that she holds the program that dear to her heart that she chose to talk about it some?” because it wasn’t “too much” at all. It was perfect if you ask me. Non-issue. This book was a joy to have experienced, it really was. I would love to have Ms. Butcher as a friend! lol. I would. I’d share a table, chair, and a cuppa coffee with her any day. This brightened up my life. Really left a mark with me. Thank you for that Barbara.

Inspiring and timely in a personal manner

This book was riveting for obvious reasons but it was her personal journey that hit home for me. Full of hope.

Personal, raw, brutally honest. Not just a good book, it’s also a great adventure!

The honesty of the author is so evident throughout this book. She captured my interest from the beginning. The respect for victims and colleagues is inspiring. I hope to read more from her.

More About Addiction Than the Dead

Typically love these type of books, but this is no Judy Melinek. Realizing this is labeled as a memoir, if I’d known how much focus was not on the MLI work and was on the author’s personal struggles with addiction, I wouldn’t have purchased. I appreciate that she has worked through significant challenges, but I wasn’t interested in this book to hear about AA meetings. Definitely felt like a bait and switch.

Great story

I really enjoyed how the story weaves together personal growth, history, forensic science, and honesty.