15/365: The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett

The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett Rating: ★★★★ Series: David Hunter #1 Publication Date: September 26, 2006 Genre: mystery: modern (1980-present) Pages: 313 ReRead?: No Project: Project 365 Three years ago, David Hunter moved to rural Norfolk to escape his life in London, his gritty work in forensics, and a tragedy that nearly destroyed him. Working as a simple country doctor, seeing his lost wife and daughter only in his dreams, David struggles to remain uninvolved when the corpse of a woman is found in the woods, a macabre sign from her killer decorating her body. In one horrifying instant, the quiet summer countryside that had been David’s refuge has turned malevolent—and suddenly there is no place to hide. The village of Manham is tight-knit, far from the beaten path. As a newcomer, Dr. Hunter is immediately a suspect. Once an expert in analyzing human remains, he reluctantly joins the police investigation—and when another woman disappears, it soon becomes personal. Because this time she is someone David knows, someone who has managed to penetrate the icy barrier around his heart. With a killer’s bizarre and twisted methods screaming out to him, with a brooding countryside beset with suspicion, David can feel the darkness gathering around him. For as the clock ticks down on a young woman’s life, David must follow a macabre trail of clues—all the way to its final, horrifying conclusion.

I expected this to be a pretty bog standard modern British mystery in the vein of Ann Cleeve or Peter Robinson, and in that respect I wasn’t far wrong.

But within that framework was a really solid, well-plotted procedural featuring an engaging amateur sleuth with an intriguing back story. David Hunter is an accomplished forensic anthropologist who has left crime behind when his wife and daughter are killed by a drunk driver, taking a job as a country GP in a small English village. I was reminded – a little bizarrely, to be honest – of James Herriott of All Creatures Great and Small fame. David takes the job and relocates to the village of Manham, which isn’t exactly a cozy place. There is a lot of drinking, a fair amount of backstabbing and unfriendliness towards outsiders and, as it turns out, a really creepy serial killer stalking and murdering young women.

When the first set of partially decomposed remains are found, he inserts himself in the investigation, which causes the local authorities to investigate him and discover his background. They ask for his help, which he reluctantly provides.

There is a pretty good twist, as well. I can’t say that I figured it out, but I can say that there was a moment when the thought crossed my mind that something might not be exactly as it seems, which is what turned out to be the case. The ending gets pretty crazy – as I was reading, my room kept getting darker and darker but I was so engrossed that I didn’t want to get up to turn on a light.

It looks like there are five more in the series, and a seventh book to be published in November. They might be a little bit difficult to source, but it looks like my library systems have at least some of them. All in all, this was a very pleasant surprise, and especially for a book that I wasn’t expecting to be as good as it turned out to be.