

True crime forces us to face the reality that evil people exist, and that we can’t always pick them out at first glance. MO: What drives the true crime boom, and will it ever end?ĪU: I think the true crime boom is really based on our collective fears.
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If your kidney looks like a hacky sack, you have to take another crack at it.Īnd finally, let’s see some more women morgue workers, please! We exist. I think Silence of the Lambs did a nice job of striking this balance-and especially portraying the solemn feeling of an autopsy.Īlso, I do wish the people involved in producing these onscreen autopsies would consult an anatomy book beforehand. Remember, the morgue is a place where body fluids spray around, especially while opening a skull or severing a spinal column. Sure, they all have that classic stainless steel and clinical white clinical aesthetic, but the reality is far messier and lower tech than shown onscreen. The entertainment industry is hell-bent on convincing viewers that morgues are high-tech space labs with touchscreen computer walls. They are not. Though I’m a firm believer in suspending my disbelief for the sake of storytelling, I can’t help myself from occasionally yelling out, “That’s not how they really do that!!” What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to fictional autopsies?ĪU: I love watching autopsies in television shows and movies. MO: So, I’m a big fan of Bones, but I know that entertainment can get things wrong. As an avid crime fiction reader myself, I always crave that extra authenticity and nothing beats firsthand experience. In this novel, I tried to fold in the things I see, smell, and hear in the morgue as much as possible. While on the podcast, I maintain a more fact-based/clinical tone to avoid having the stories of real victims feel like exploitative entertainment, in my fiction, I allow myself a bit more creativity in my narrative style. Gallows humor has a place in the death industry, to allow workers to cope with the sometimes suffocating sadness that comes with the job, but it can never be in relation to the victim. Just like the person on my autopsy table is a human being who has people who love them, the people we discuss on Morbid are mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and friends. For example, I always try to part the victim’s hair in a way that allows me to make the necessary cuts without damaging their hair.

It makes me confront my own habits and misconceptions and reveals how intricate and fragile the human body truly is.ĭignity is key in both my work as a true crime podcaster and as an autopsy technician.


Working with the dead has given me a different perspective on life. Tell us a bit about your job and how it intersects with your life as a podcaster and writer.Īlaina Urquhart: I love being an autopsy technician. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.Molly Odintz: You’re an autopsy technician. Case after case is piling up on Wren’s examination table, and soon she is sucked into an all-consuming cat-and-mouse chase with a brutal murderer getting more brazen by the day.Īn addictive read with straight-from-the-morgue details only an autopsy technician could provide, The Butcher and the Wren promises to ensnare all who enter.Īlaina Urquhart is an autopsy technician, the co-host of Morbid: A True Crime Podcast, the host of Crime Countdown and Scream! Urquhart is also the author of The Butcher and The Wren. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of historical crimes, and years of experience working in the Medical Examiner’s office, she’s never encountered a case she couldn’t solve. Something dark is lurking in the Louisiana bayou: a methodical killer with a penchant for medical experimentation is hard at work completing his most harrowing crime yet, taunting the authorities who desperately try to catch up.īut forensic pathologist Dr.
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From the co-host of chart-topping true crime podcast Morbid, a thrilling debut novel told from the dueling perspectives of a notorious serial killer and the medical examiner following where his trail of victims leads
