In 33 years as a medical examiner in Belgium's Liege region, he has performed hundreds of autopsies - his attention to detail bringing to light homicide cases that would otherwise have remained undetected.
Anchored in real life, the writing is unflinching and darkly humorous, but the 59-year-old also seeks to impart some of his passion for a little-known, but crucial, profession.
It's a way, he said of his work, "to give voice to the dead one last time."
His observations have revealed the most unusual of circumstances for a person's demise - like the 60-something woman who had her throat slashed by her son's pitbull terrier, that she had gone to feed.Another time he established how a farmer was trapped by a bull he did not see surge from the stable shadows. Fractures to the torso and limbs showed how the hapless victim was crushed by the 1.2-tonne beast.
The idea of writing came in 2021, triggered by the success of a post in which he recounted three striking anecdotes.He decided to set down in writing more of the stories pulled from his more than three decades in forensics - which until then had been shared only with students at the medical school where he teaches.
It was an instant hit: published almost back to back, his three books have together sold 740,000 copies, including 200,000 for the latest released in late August, whose title translates as "Looking death in the face.""It's extraordinary for a work of non-fiction," said Kennes, a small Belgian publisher that was struggling to make ends meet until it struck gold with Boxho.
In France, his latest book is among the season's non-fiction bestsellers, with talks under way on an English edition.Boxho drew a full house of enthusiasts at a book signing in Blegny, near Liege.
"It's fascinating to hear him talk as he's passionate about what he does," said Marie Lou Collard, a political science student.She came across Boxho via his videos posted on TikTok and YouTube, and sought out his essays to find out more.
In all of his stories, some dating back decades, the identities have been changed in keeping with confidentiality rules. "I respect the body in front of me," he said."It belongs to a person I don't know.
"What I laugh about is death and the ways that people die," he said. "It's a bit cynical, but that's the way I am. If you don't like it, don't read my books."Many of his cases have involved women killed by partners. Sometimes it is a parent killed by a child - or almost killed, as in one extraordinary case Boxho shared with the crowd in Blegny.
Late one night, a woman entered her father's bedroom with a revolver, intent on murdering him. She fired the entire barrel at him, and left him for dead.But the autopsy later showed he was already dead when she shot him - of a brain hemorrhage that occurred moments earlier - and the daughter was cleared as a result.
"Criminal law requires certainties," said Boxho, who argued that defending his profession, whose numbers have dwindled dramatically in recent years in Belgium, is also a way of ensuring better justice for all.AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
