The Untold Story of American Funeral and Mourning TraditionsWhy do we embalm the deceased? Why are funerals so expensive? Is there a reason coffins are shaped the way they are? When—and why—did we start viewing the deceased? Ceremonies for honoring the departed are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from—and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death. In Last Rites, author Todd Har...

From scary to heartwarming and hilarious, an assortment of behind-the-scenes, true stories about life as an undertaker.From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell—and a special way of telling them.In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death’s do...

Tripp Clipper is at the top of his profession as an undertaker. Whether it's serving a grieving family with compassion or embalming a tough case, Clip is ready to tackle it. But his latest body is different. This case of accidental death is really a murder.Clip raises his concerns, but the coroner's office is unwilling to reopen the investigation. He's forced to let it go. But then the bodies begin piling up and Clip feels it's his duty to investigate. Trouble is someone doesn't wa...

Tripp Clipper is back, this time as a deadly outbreak of unknown origin spreads through Charleston like wildfire.A routine autopsy on a couple of unidentified homicide victims takes a turn for the weird when Homeland Security swoops in and seizes the bodies. Even weirder, Clip and the attending pathologist are debriefed at a safe house where a doctor pokes and prods them to determine if they were infected, but Homeland Security won't tell them with what.Two...

Discover a more lighthearted side of the funeral industry in this collection of real-life stories from the authors of Mortuary Confidential.Not knowing what to do, I sat on the church steps and waited. As the gravity of my failure began to well up in me, I began to cry . . . I Had Lost The Hearse!Funerals and the all the things that accompany them are traditionally somber, contemplative events in which the bereaved look to their undertaker...

The Untold Story of American Funeral and Mourning TraditionsWhy do we embalm the deceased? Why are funerals so expensive? Is there a reason coffins are shaped the way they are? When—and why—did we start viewing the deceased?Ceremonies for honoring the departed are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from—and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death.In Last Rites, author Todd Harra takes you ...

With humor and heart, Over Our Dead Bodies does for the undertaking profession what Mary Roach's Stiff did for cadavers, and, like Caitlin Doughty's Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? gives us permission to embrace our morbid curiosity. From the authors of Mortuary Confidential.Not knowing what to do, I sat on the church steps and waited. As the gravity of my failure began to well up in me, I began to cry . . .I HA...

When the casket reached the front of the sanctuary, there was a loud cracking sound as the bottom fell out. And with a thump, down came Father Iggy.From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell—and a special way of telling them.In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant sto...