For nearly nine years, Donna Francart was a deputy coroner who worked medicolegal death investigations, which are those involving suspicious, violent, unexplained, or unexpected deaths. Lacking access to structured debriefings, Francart turned to journaling as a way of privately unpacking the profound grief she faced and preserving her own mental well-being. As she did, she found herself in a conundrum of perplexing relationships with both the living and the dead.

With her book I've Seen Dead People, she shares her unfiltered thoughts and emotions as she navigates a world most of us cannot imagine — a world Francart was drawn to out of a genuine desire to help others during their darkest hours.