Seven years ago, R. B. Dettmeyer made it his business to update the colorful and complex cosmos of forensic histopathology by elaborating a novel, comprehensive, and profound standard work that forensic pathologists have long been waiting for. Now the revised “second edition” is available.

As its predecessor, the book consists of 20 concisely written and well-structured chapters covering both classic and rare histopathological findings relevant to cause of death, age diagnostics, and all the other aspects of forensic histology and cytology. The detailed descriptions are abundantly illustrated with colorful microscopic photographs making the book a practical mixture of textbook and atlas. As is to be expected, some sections have encouragingly been expanded by new sub-chapters, tables and images such as the chapters on “Staining Techniques and Microscopy,” “Histopathology and Drug Abuse,” or “Thrombosis and Embolism.” Numerous systematic tables help understand classification systems or summarize the histomorphological characteristics of a disease or pathological entity. As the most recent literature up to November 2017 has been listed at the end of each chapter, the book also gives an excellent and unique literature overview on the histopathological aspects of all major fields in forensic medicine.

The layout is still very clear and all information is easily accessible. Blue text boxes that highlight and further explain important aspects and diseases represent a nice feature of the text design.

As the book represents a “one-man work,” the entire text is from a single source which warrants a uniform and consistent style of writing. In addition, the author is of special competence and expertise in the field of forensic histopathology as Professor Dettmeyer not only studied law and medicine but also is a board-certified specialist in both legal medicine and general pathology. The clear concept and language of the present book proves—once more—the extraordinary high level of teaching experience of the author.

The second edition of Forensic Histopathology: Fundamentals and Perspectives can be recommended to every forensic institute’s library since histopathology still play the key role in a number of forensic routine cases, particularly in the determination of the cause of death. The present book represents a decisive contribution to keep this fact in mind. Trainees during residency as well as experienced specialists in legal medicine, whether practitioners or researchers, will find the book very instructive and helpful for their daily business. Furthermore, any other physicians confronted with histology from autopsy cases, such as clinical pathologists, will undoubtedly benefit from this work.