Aftermath, Inc.

"Now that's how you scrub a f*$%in' blood stain!"

Al Swearengen in Deadwood 

Title: Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home

Author: Gil Reavill

Publisher/Publisher Date: Gotham Books, 2007

Library/Bookstore: Borders

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: August 2008

Rating: ***

What It's About: True-crime writer, Gil Reavill, wants to know what it would be like to experience a fresh crime scene.  He decides to job shadow a couple of techs from Aftermath, Inc., a company that cleans up after suicides, violent murder, and unfortunate accidents.  Anything at the crime scene that has been touched by bodily fluids, blood splatter, and/or other human biomatter has to be treated, removed or replaced completely (getting your head shot off creates a lot of biomatter).  It ain't an easy job, but dammit, somebody has to do it. 

Why I Chose to Read It: A couple of years ago, I wrote a post on my blog about the people who cleaned up the dead.  It's a job that most people don't know much about. 

Notes About the Book:

1. This book is not for people with weak stomachs.  By page 7, I was turning a little green.  Some people have sick, sick minds.
2. You can make a lot of money being a crime-scene cleaner!
3. Gil talks about himself too much. 
4. At one of the clean up sites, they actually find an eye under a folded-ever flap of skin.  An EYE!!! 
5. The techs refer to puking on the job as "pulling a Bushie."  HA!
6. Aftermath, Inc. was called in to clean up the mess that was made when a mechanic was sucked into the engine of a Boeing 737.  The airline company didn't want to throw away a $10 million engine.
7. It was sad reading about the tragic death of film collector Alois Felix Dettlaff.  He was the owner of the original Thomas Edison's 1910 Frankenstein film (the first horror movie ever made) that was once thought to be lost by the Library of Congress.  Dettlaff died alone in his home and his body wasn't discovered until almost a month later.  His family doesn't know what happened to the film cannister containing the original print of Frankenstein.  You can watch it here. 
8. The picture shown above is from the upcoming movie Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.  It's about a mom who starts her own crime scene clean up company with her unreliable sister.  According to the book, they're doing it wrong.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  It's a fascinating read if you think your stomach is up for it!

Links:

Aftermath, Inc.--They're hiring!

Aftermath, Inc.: The Book--A blog for the book.

How Crime-scene Clean-up Works