A civilian crime scene investigator for the Baltimore County Police Department for 10 years, Dana Kollmann has seen and done almost everything ? and lets readers know it.
Kollmann?s first book, “Never Suck A Dead Man?s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI,” is revolting but somehow captivating, almost like a car accident you can?t tear your eyes away from.
Her wonderfully descriptive writing makes you feel like you are in the room with her while she is working. Unfortunately, it?s because she is either underneath a smelly dead guy, closely examining a head blown off by a shotgun or staring at squirming maggots in an open wound.
Kollmann starts the book off denouncing almost everything readers may have ever watched on “CSI,” “Crossing Jordan” or “Law and Order.” She makes it perfectly clear that glossy makeup, pressed suits and stiletto heels have no place in the real world of crime scene investigation.
The title of the book comes from an experience Kollmann relives, an attempt to get fingerprints from a cold body.
The book is not for the faint of heart. Kollmann describes the first body she examined, a man who committed suicide by holding a rifle under his chin, leaving nothing remaining of his head but a “pulverized mess that used to be his head … bone, blood, brain, hair and skin splattered everywhere.”
Her blase tone, which she explains in the third chapter, may shock some readers, but this detachment allowed her to do her job for so many years without mentally breaking down. This tone makes the book. Her constant joking, frank manner and dry wit allow the reader to experience the life of a CSI without becoming emotionally involved.
Never Suck a Dead Man?s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI
» Published by Citadel, Kensington Books
» Release Date: Jan. 30
» www.danakollmann.com
