4,5 stars!

Sue Black is a forensic anthropologist and has gained quite a lot of fame and awards through her work. Her previous book, All That Remains, is popular but I haven't read it yet - I definitely will though! Written in Bone focuses on the human skeleton and how different bones tell a story of who you are. The book is divided into parts and sections and Sue Black goes through the skeleton from the skull down. She tells us how a fetus' bones start to develop and how age affects them through our life, which can be used to tell the age of an unidentified body. She focuses on how violence leaves its mark on different bones and can be a telltale sign of the way a person has died. Throughout this book I was absolutely amazed by how much you can tell from a single bone, sometimes even just a tiny fragment of bone.
 
This is definitely not a light read and if you're at all squeamish or have a problem reading about certain topics, I would advice to (t)read with caution. Sue Black doesn't sugarcoat the crimes she writes about, and there are descriptions of murder, violence, torture and child abuse.