Book Review: Here, Where Death Delights

Reviewed by J.B. Leddington

A moving and inspiring account of a life spent in the company of death

Exploring the life and career of a forensic pathologist, Here, Where Death Delights is a literary memoir that elucidates an important, albeit often little understood, professional path and the impact it has on both the professional themself, those close to them, and the wider public. Given its subject matter, there is no shortage of blood, despair, and tragedy, but there is also hope, comfort, and inspiration, and it all makes for an insightful and moving account of how a life spent around by death can be a life well spent.

“This book is true, as far as one’s memory can ever be.” It begins with Jumbelic’s early fascination with death, sparked by the loss of her father during surgery intended to treat lung cancer when she was just 13. Although she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge the possibility, her father had been clear about his fate before he went to the hospital: “‘Stop it, Mary, I told you, I’m not coming home.’ An uncharacteristic sharpness crept in his tone. ‘I’m going to die.’” When this bleak pronouncement proved true, Jumbelic realized that “I would spend the next four decades of my life searching for answers.”

Her initial curiosity about the mystery and inevitability of death led to and was spurred on by a high school visit to the Medical Examiner’s Office (“No one has chosen our office in 15 years, since we started listing with the program.”), which ultimately prompted her to pivot from pursuing a medical career to embarking on a 25-year career as a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, a career spent listening to corpses and explaining to grieving families. During this time, she worked in morgues in Chicago, Peoria and the Quad Cities, and Syracuse, building a reputation that led to her involvement in the aftermath of major events such as 9/11.  

In terms of the cases that Jumbelic has encountered throughout her career, the tone of her recollections is established from the outset of Here, Where Death Delights—compassionate but factual and to the point—when she describes the crime scene following the murder of a three-year-old boy: “The little boy was on his stomach, arms outstretched, as if he had gotten tired while playing. Action figures, wood puzzles, and foam building blocks scattered around him. Except for the blood pooling around his head, the toddler could have been napping.”

She certainly doesn’t sensationalize matters, but she also doesn’t shy away from the realities of death, particularly when due to unnatural causes:

“My gloved hands carefully turned his body over to examine the source of the bleeding, large wounds on his neck. Holding his head with my left hand, I noted that a serrated knife had been drawn against his neck with such tension it created little hatch marks from its edge along the adjacent skin. Four long incisions started near the ear and continued to the front at the Adam’s apple. One had gone deep and sliced into the jugular vein.”

While such passages can be undeniably upsetting, they always serve a purpose, revealing the matters that medical examiners in general and Jumbelic in particular encounter during the course of their duties. The contrasts between the home and professional spheres, as well as the associations between the two, are especially powerful. For example, when Jumbelic was completing her elective in forensic pathology, she was shocked to witness the autopsy of a former childhood friend named Peter, who had died by suicide. The psychological impact of death never seems to have fully dissipated, as evidenced by the feelings evoked when Jumbelic, by then an established professional, saw the body of the young boy mentioned earlier and noted his similarities to her own son.

Jumbelic’s writing is particularly poignant when drawing together these threads of her personal and professional lives, offering an intimate glimpse into the many challenges and often heavy emotional toll associated with her chosen career. Despite such difficulties, it is clear that Jumbelic, now retired, was extremely dedicated to and heavily emotionally invested in her work. Indeed, aside from regular duties that involved bringing criminals to justice and affording peace to victims, she engaged in research that drove significant changes, such as the introduction of warning labels on buckets and pails, which likely saved infants from death by accidental drowning.

Moving beyond the professional insights, Jumbelic’s ability to reflect on her experiences, such as the impact of parenthood on her work, adds a very human touch to the narrative, which may otherwise have come across as rather removed from the daily lives of most, given the centrality of death and disaster. This human touch also means that the various deceased persons Jumbelic refers to, whatever the circumstances that led to their deaths, are always positioned as real people rather than as merely case studies. “It is my job to bear witness and to remember. I speak for the dead.”

As a consequence of such human touches, Here, Where Death Delights is notable not only for its exploration of death and forensic pathology but also for its broader themes, including family, grief, and the difficulty of striking a balance between the professional and the personal. Moreover, while Jumbelic takes pains not to shy away from the graphic details of the autopsy process, she also makes sure to temper such descriptions with warm-hearted interpretations, humorous reflections, and insightful musings on issues such as law enforcement, mental health care, and the human condition.

Here, Where Death Delights captures the complexity of Jumbelic’s varied experiences with death and dying. It’s a thought-provoking and absorbing account of a life spent deeply connected with death.

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