“Choi's true-crime biography adds much-needed detail and perspective to Noguchi's unusual and compelling story.”

—Booklist

L.A. Coroner is the gripping true-crime biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the controversial “Coroner to the Stars.” He served as the Chief Medical Examiner of Los Angeles from the 1960s to the 70s and performed  official autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood, and all five of the Manson Family murder victims. Throughout his illustrious career, Noguchi led the investigation of some of the most high-profile deaths of his time. His elaborate press conferences, which often raised more questions than they did answers, catapulted him into the public eye.

In this book, Anne Soon Choi, an award-winning historian and professor, deftly blends Los Angeles history, death investigation, forensic science, and Asian American history in a feat of exquisite storytelling.

Noguchi was also the inspiration for the popular 1970s–80s television drama Quincy, M.E., starring Jack Klugman. Featuring never-before-published details about Noguchi’s most controversial cases, L.A. Coroner is a meticulously researched biography of a complex man, set against the backdrop of the social and racial politics of the 1960s and 1970s and Hollywood celebrity culture.