Missing Pieces: A Coroner’s Companion
by Kathryn Rantala

Description

This collection of forensic poetry and short prose, written over a ten-year period, was published in 1999 by Ocean View Books, Denver.   The contents are illustrated by unattributed file photos from the 1930-’50s; editor Lee Ballentine created a masterful design inside and out.  A handful of author copies are available from this site.

Desciption:

Seattle in the Thirties and Forties was a sometimes seedy, often melancholy place, full of toil (if you were lucky enough to be working), human tragedy and blue-collar boredom. Leo Lassen’s night baseball broadcasts were the city’s most popular entertainment. Crime was commonplace. Frequently it fell to deputies in what today is called the Medical Examiner’s Office to reconstruct the facts about those with shattered bodies and fractured lives.