Dead Center

This insider’s account of the NYC medical examiner’s office takes readers from an average day in the autopsy room to the tragic aftermath of 9/11.

For fifteen years, Shiya Ribowsky worked as a medicolegal investigator in New York City’s medical examiner’s office—the largest, most sophisticated organization of its kind in the world. Ribowsky led the investigations of more than eight thousand individual deaths, becoming a key figure in some of New York’s most bizarre death cases. He also took charge of the largest forensic investigation ever attempted: identifying the dead in the aftermath of September 11th.

Now Ribowsky pulls back the curtain on the New York City’s medical examiner’s office, giving a never-before-seen glimpse into death and the city. From vermin-infested Bowery flophouses to posh Upper East Side apartments of the city’s dead, Ribowsky explores the skeletons that hang in the Big Apple’s closets. Combing through the autopsy room, he also exposes the grim secrets that only a scalpel can reveal, and explains how forensic investigation not only solve crimes—but also saves lives.