Chemistry has never been so gripping (The Chemistry of Death - Simon Beckett)

Member Name: salem_witch

Product:	The Chemistry of Death - Simon Beckett
Date:	19/12/06 (402 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read British forensics crime fiction

Disadvantages: Some might be put off by the forensics descriptions

At the beginning of the year I saw a poster on the underground advertising this book. Straight away I was interested as it looked like my kind of book so I made a mental note to look it up on Amazon. When I did it did sound really good and for some reason I’ve only just got my hands on a copy. I’ve an interest in forensics and have long been fascinated by it so when I read that this involved forensics I knew I’d enjoy it. I’d never heard of the author Simon Beckett so I had no idea what to expect although I’d imagine it would be somewhat like a Patricia Cornwall or Tess Gerritsen novel. Sometimes it’s best to have no pre conceptions and to dive straight in.

The opening of the book as fascinating and draws you in, well at least for anyone interested in forensics and in this case the decomposition of the human body. “A human body starts to decompose four minutes after death. Once the encapsulation of life, it now undergoes its final metamorphoses. It begins to digest itself…” It may sound gruesome but I think it’s done is a tasteful way. Others may disagree though, as I tend to find things not even remotely scary or sickening when others do. When the subject of trails of maggots is mentioned we learn this is how Neil and Sam the Yates boys discover a body in the woods. It has so badly decomposed they weren’t even sure if it was male or female or even human. The smell was overpowering and the flies buzzing around made things worse as well. Running back home they are clearly shaken and when the police turn up they are so affected that they don’t want to return to the woods to show them where the unidentifiable body is.

This is where our main character Dr David Hunter steps in. He is treating the young lads for shock before the police turn up. Mrs Yates tells him he thinks the body is that of Sally Palmer as she appeared in her dream. Hunter thinks this is strange and is relieved when the police do turn up. The police want the boys to show them where in the woods the body is but after Hunter and the boy’s mother agreeing that they are too shaken Hunter agrees to take then to the area of the woods that the boys discovered the body. He takes them so far and then waits for them to return. The youngest officer is white and has been sick so this confirms it for Hunter before they can even say something.

After the Mrs Yates telling him about the strange dream featuring Sally Palmer he decides to pop over to her farm to see her. He doesn’t believe that something untoward has happened to Sally but he still has the impulse to go and see her. As they are both ‘outsiders’ who have moved to Manham and they had socialised in the past although after Sally wanted to be more than friends he backed off because he wasn’t ready for it. He still managed to remain friends with her. He doesn’t know why he is going to see her, as she is a writer and could just be busy with that. When he does arrive at her farm he does become concerned. She has left her door unlocked (very unusual for a Londoner) and has a huge pile of mail, which seems strange. Still dismissing it he continues to look around and it’s when he goes outside he realises that something has happened. Her goats haven’t been fed and are almost dead and her Border Collie, Bess has been killed and has a severed head.

It turns out that Hunter is a forensic anthropologist and Chief Inspector MacKenzie, who is investigating the murder, wants his help. At the moment it isn’t clear who they have found and although it looks like it is Palmer they need to be sure. Hunter really doesn’t want to go back to his past life and takes some convincing to look at the remains of the body. Eventually he does and things take a turn for the worse. Another woman disappears and this time it’s someone who has lived in the village all her life so the village as a whole takes this more seriously. Could it be one of their own committing these atrocities or is it someone else? Will someone else fall victim?

Hunter is an interesting and mysterious character to begin with. Not a lot about him is revealed when he is introduced which makes you wonder why he has run away from London to Manham a ‘sleepy’ village in Norfolk. Slowly bits of his past life are revealed and the reasons he accepted the post of GP, which I won’t reveal. He had been in Manham for 3 years before the discovery of Sally Palmer’s body but he is still seen as being as an outsider because of the way the community is so tight knit. He is an extremely likeable character and when you find out the reasons for his aversion to helping the police with the mutilated bodies you can see why. When arriving he didn’t even tell his boss Dr Henry Maitland the reasons behind it and he is under the impression that he has been a GP previously. When he does help with the investigation the villagers aren’t aware of this and see him with the police and jump to the wrong conclusions. Hunter doesn’t really care and this adds to the speculation.

Maitland has employed Hunter because he was in a car accident and has since been in a wheelchair. He can no longer cope with the whole practice so taking Hunter on really helped him. However, when Hunter starts to help the police he starts to feel the strain again. He doesn’t seem to complain about this and comes across as a really caring man. Maitland also has an air of mystery about him as he doesn’t reveal much about his past and Hunter doesn’t pry. When his housekeeper starts bad mouthing his wife, who was killed in the accident Hunter changes the subject, as he isn’t comfortable.

I was interested in the forensics side of things and although Beckett does go into detail it isn’t pages and pages of it. So those who have no idea won’t be lost and will be able to follow the story with ease. I’d personally have preferred more detail but then I guess what would have put most people off so this makes it more appealing to more people. The order that insects are found on a dead body are discussed and how this makes it possible for anthropologists to determine how long the body has been dead. Also the weather, soil and time of the year is used to pin point the time. I found this interesting as it means that the police can get a time slot of when the crime was committed and who they can rule out. Becketts fascination of this came from a visit to a place called The Body Farm in Tennessee. Here they actually use human corpses for their studies. As a journalist Beckett visited The Body Farm and it was from here the idea to write ‘Chemistry Of Death’ came.

Hunter is the narrator most the time so we get to see things from his point of view. Occasionally the narrator will be another person but this doesn’t happen and when it is it tends to be the murderer being the narrator. The book is very easy to read and it draws you in. I found myself wanting to read more as when I thought I’d sussed it out something else happened where I knew I was wrong. The twists mean that most people won’t be able to work out who did it from the beginning.

I’d definitely recommend ‘Chemistry Of Death’. It would appeal to anyone who likes crime fiction but also those who like Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwall, Mo Hayder and Karin Slaughter. Although I wouldn’t say that they were similar I know I enjoy these authors and there are tiny similarities in some of them. I’d say Hayder is the best comparison, with her ‘Birdman’ springing to mind but they are still very different. For anyone who is interested it’s available in hardback at the moment and it’ll be released in paperback in April 2007. The next Hunter book ‘Written In Bone’ is going to be out next summer so I’ll certainly be looking out for that one.

Summary: Great forensics fiction.