Two women. 200 forgotten murder victims. The largest exhumation in FBI history.
In the shadows of Detroit's abandoned buildings and beneath the soil of county cemeteries lay hundreds of murder victims, buried anonymously, their killers never charged, and their families never told why they vanished. For decades, only decaying police files hinted at what happened. Until two women decided to listen to the dead.
Honored with a Kirkus Reviews, Kirkus star as "An engaging real-life story of forensic detection," Women Who Talk to the Dead follows Detroit Police Detective Shannon Jones and FBI Special Agent Leslie Larsen as they build a team of female forensic anthropologists, scientists, and investigators to unearth Detroit's painful past. Facing skepticism and bureaucratic roadblocks at every turn, they push through rain-soaked cemetery digs, crumbling case files, and bone-filled body bags to identify the nameless dead and finally answer the families who spent decades wondering what happened to the people they loved.
Katherine Schweit takes readers inside this unprecedented cold case investigation:Discover the scientific breakthroughs that let forensic experts "hear" what bones can still tell us decades after death
Feel the emotional toll of searching for answers long after everyone else has stopped looking
Confront the hard truth about which murders get solved and which victims society quietly writes off
See how a small team of determined women changed a system that too often let killers walk free simply because their victims were poor, marginalized, or forgotten

Part forensic procedural, part social justice story, this book exposes what happens when the criminal justice system fails the people who need it most. It's also a tribute to the officers and scientists who refused to let the forgotten stay nameless.
Some of Detroit's dead have finally reclaimed their identities. Hundreds more still wait in unmarked graves for someone to listen.
True crime fans of Mindhunter, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, and We Keep the Dead Close will love how Schweit blends her expertise in law enforcement with a gift for storytelling in this gripping true crime story of justice long overdue.