Rating: 
Summary: A real page turner
Review: I found this book in a shop near my house. It was the first time something 'gross' had ever made me queasy. i went back time after time to flip through the pages, until finally, i bought it. It is gorgeous and nicely put together. A true labor of love. There is something SO compelling about these real images of people. This is no hollywood re-enactiment, no CG showcase- this is the real thing, in all its gory fascinating detail. Yum.
Rating: 
Summary: Haunting Masterpiece of What Humans are Capable of Doing
Review: I found this book to be very shocking and disturbing, not in the fact that crime scenes were shown, but how humans can treat each other and themselves. A few of the pictures didn't even look real. It makes me feel for Homicide detectives who must face this day after day.
Rating: 
Summary: Feeling suicidal? This one will send you over the edge.
Review: I never even bought this book -- I read it twice while standing in the aisles of a Virgin Megastore, and each time it sent me deep into the blackest headspace I remember ever having. As powerful as the photos are, the publishers' intent to shock is apparent. No subtlety here -- just a complete demystification of death. As Michael Powell once said of Martin Scorsese: "He knows that when you're dead, you begin to smell." This book shows that sense in visuals. Sickening, repulsive, sensationalistic. The very book itself is as vile as the realities it depicts. As much as I acknowledge its evocative power, I feel compelled to condemn its intentions.
Rating:
Summary: HORRIFIC
Review: I ordered this because I read and enjoyed Katherine Dunn's novel, Geek Love, and was curious to see what she had to say in the text of such a photo book. I received it on a friday and looked it over, and as a result felt rather tweaky for the rest of that weekend. I returned it the following Monday. This book is long on horribly brutal and depraved images and short on Dunn verbage. The fact that the images are real makes them, yes, fascinating, but still very very disturbing. It would be an excellent antidote for some one who thinks of death in terms of action film images. If you have young kids and want to keep this book, I recommend keeping it well hidden. I have a young child, and I'd hate to have him someday find something like this on the shelf by chance and be exposed to such horror.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye Opening
Review: I ordered this book because I assumed it would be accounts of murders and how/if they were captured. I was looking forward to the text by Katerine Dunn, but much to my dissapointment there was none to speak of. Being an avid true crime and forensic reader, I was shocked when I looked through the book. I knew there would be pictures, but MAN...that's all there was. It reminded me of Faces of Death. Not my thing, but if your into that than this book is for you. I would recommend for you true crime lovers to pass on this book. I for one can do without seeing brains and parts of skull spread about someones front porch.
Rating:
Summary: Broken bodies, by fermed
Review: I rate this book highly because it is honest. It does not pretend to be anything other than what it is: a scapbook containing dozens of photographs of murdered remains, or bodies after suicide, of decapitations and decompositions, of naked bodies diseased or tattooed; it is a gallery of gruesomely altered human physiques. The pictures and their captions have a direct and stirring effect on the gut of the reader, and only later do they permit the reader's reason to come into play. The book's title is true to its contents; its cover is also honest (a sample of what is inside) and the brief introduction by Katherine Dunn is perceptive and functional. That introduction does what an introduction is supposed to do: prepare the reader for what is ahead while furnishing a sensible commentary on the nature of the work. In all this is a neat book, worth having. I cannot understand the negative comments by some readers concerning "Death Scenes." Surely they were not ambushed into gazing at these (horrible) pictures. They should have known by the title, by the cover, and even by the publisher (Feral House) that this was not a book of, say, children's poems. Much can be learned from "Death Scenes:" it contains great beauty and even some rhapsodic traits which can be perceived once the initial horror has been bypassed. This book should be looked at by those interested in the facts or in the literature of true crime. It is sure to bring pause to those contemplating suicide. "Death Scenes" certainly contains aspects of reality which some will prefer to avoid but which others will incorporate into their view of the world.
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Summary: There were no good old days
Review: Jack Huddleston was a homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department from the 20's to the 50's. He collected his photos in a scrapbook now published by Feral House, and it makes for grim reading. His career started with Prohibition (and the wonderful crimes that it caused) and continued with investigations of all kinds: murders, suicides, car accidents, and even babies killed by poor desperate mothers. In LA there were no good old days. These pictures are not for the squeamish. They do, however, reflect the values of the society in LA at the time. Immigrants from all over were rushing to seek their fortunes (and misfortunes) in a society that worships success and scorns failure. The criminal gangs and the suicides were two sides of the same coin.
Rating: 
Summary: No redeeming qualities
Review: Like other readers of this type of material, I too am interested in understanding death, crime, forensic pathology, the macabre -- call it what you will. I didn't read this book so much as view it, because there wasn't much to read, and this I believe is a deep flaw of the work. Other than the rambling introduction, the photographs and comments of the cop were not interpreted. I came away from the book with no new insight and felt no better than a rubbernecking driver trying to glimpse some gore on the highway
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as you may think...
Review: Not enough written about the scenes...Blurry, old, photos. GRAPHIC,but needs MORE 'verbal'approach....Should tell more about the "Scenes".....More of a voyeyer aspect than anything else...OK, though...Just "another Crime scene thing"
Rating:
Summary: Just don't leave it in the children's section or cafe.
Review: Oddly enough, I found this book in the children's section of Borders bookstore. It is indeed a picture book, and a rather engrossing one at that (no pun intended). Although not for the faint of heart, it is probably the most fascinating as well as most visually informative books I've picked up. It is great for those trying to form a strong stomach...or anyone else for that matter. I recommend it.
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