Clay and Bones: My Life as an FBI Forensic Artist

Bailey debuts with a macabre memoir about her work as an FBI forensic artist. Discussing the tricks of her trade, she notes that the age of a skull can be estimated by examining “wear and tear on teeth” and that clay facial reconstructions are performed on “3D-printed resin replicas” so that the original skull isn’t disturbed or altered. Though Bailey mainly describes the work as quiet and careful, she recounts some of the more dramatic cases she’s been involved with, including flying to Bogotá to draw composite sketches of suspects in the killing of a DEA agent and digitally removing “blood and gore” from photos of the detached heads of suicide bombers so that the images could be released to the public for help with identification. The latter half of the book largely concerns the harassment Bailey endured as one of relatively few women at the Bureau, including getting bullied by vindictive male supervisors who blamed her for their mistakes and sabotaged her work after she filed a complaint against them. Bailey provides gritty insight into the unglamorous labor of forensic artists, but she struggles to effectively integrate the account of her workplace harassment, giving the proceedings a disjointed feel. Still, Bones fans will enjoy the insider’s view of forensic analysis. (Feb.)