A great new British author and a great lead character
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`The Chemistry of Death' is the new forensic thriller from Simon Beckett and is the first in the series starring Dr David Hunter. The story begins shortly after David moves to the small village of Manham following the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car accident in London. Women begin to go missing and are found days later in the woods and marshland brutally mutilated and set on display with dead animals placed near them. David used to work with the police back in the city so the local police find this out and ask for his help. As more women go missing and the police have nothing to go on, the residents of Manham become more vigilant and make it harder for David and the police to find the killer.
I'm a big fan of forensic thrillers like Cornwell and Reichs so when I started reading this and realised that it was based in England, I really did strike gold with Simon Beckett! The setting of Manham seems very claustrophobic despite it being in a hot, bright and sunny setting for a majority of the book, with the residents being very close-knit and making David feel like a real outsider. The story is fairly fast-paced although did give me time to really get to know David and his background near the start of the book rather than jumping straight into the murders and abductions of the women. The characters are all very realistic with David being a really great lead character that is likeable and believable, even if some of his characteristics are a little cliché (dead wife and kid, moves away to a new place) in the crime fiction genre. I still look forward to reading the next in the series. Beckett's knowledge on dead bodies seems to be quite detailed and accurate (as far as I'm aware) and I felt I learnt a bit too when reading this too.
Overall this is a really great British thriller that I found to be very scary and extremely exciting and tense. I didn't guess the killer at all and so when I found out who it was it was a surprise. I highly recommend this to fans of Cornwell and Reichs who also enjoy book s by authors like Mark Billingham and Ian Rankin, as it does feel like a mix of the two types of crime fiction rolled into one. I can't wait to read the second book in the series now.
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The Chemistry of Death
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This has got to be one of the best thrillers I have read for a very long time. The story twists and turns, and I was compelled to carry on reading. I did so in one day!! It is brilliantly written and impossible to guess the outcome. I cannot recommend it highly enough as a "bloody good read". Well done Simon Beckett what an outstanding talent in this genre - I am just about to start the next book Written in Bone, and I can only hope it is as good.
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Good style, poor plot.
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I've read a lot of poor British crime novels recently - I don't rate Billingham, I can't stand Kernick, and Peter James isn't worth bothering with. So, it was a breath of fresh air when I picked up this effort by Simon Beckett - it was obvious in the first couple of pages that this guy could write. His style is smooth and polished and he generates great depth and atmosphere in his prose.
However, the longer I got through the book, I became slightly disappointed. For a start, call me picky, but the title is poor. The Chemistry of Death sounds like a poor `B' movie title, and expresses nothing about the book at all. I'm sure I could think of a dozen better titles in about 5 minutes than this one.
I also don't like the 1st / 3rd person mix. I think that's an indication of an author wanting his cake and eating it. If it's a 1st person novel, it needs to be all the way through. Have the courage of your convictions - if you can't express the themes, structure and exposition within the 1st person, then make it all 3rd person.
So, what happens. Ex-forensic anthropologist David Hunter, distraught after the death of his wife and daughter, takes a job in a GPs surgery in a small Norfolk village. Then a woman is killed in a macabre way and another goes missing. Perhaps Hunter can help...
I have no real problem with Beckett's settings, characters etc - it's the plot where this novel ultimately fails. I was expecting a trail of clues that led to the identifications of the killer, through intelligent analysis of the science. Unfortunately, while Hunter does come out with some interesting information about decomposing corpses, the killer is unveiled through pure coincidence and not through any forthright detective work. Beckett tries to give us a few false leads and then simply drops the killer on us with no real logical reason. Any consistent reader of crime novels can probably have a wild stab at the identity of the killer, given the rather shallow pool of suspects, but one would expect logical deduction on Hunter's part.
As far as the killer is concerned, their motivation is poorly exposed and very tenous. And the obligatory twist at the end is very banal and put there as a twist for a twist sake.
Also, Hunters' developing relationship with a local schoolteacher is unnecessary and simply provides a plot movement that you can see coming a mile away.
All in all, Beckett can write, sure, but this ultimately remains a very average crime `thriller' that has flashes of brilliance, but ends up being simply average, hence the average rating.
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A good read.
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Although I did find this book a page turner, I didn't think was as good as the hype on here. I loved the science involved, it made the whole story more interesting and realistic, although I was disappointed with the reasons behind the murder (it was a bit typical) and I didn't feel there was much depth to the characters. Plus points was that it was easy to read, was definitely a page turner, it threw you off course and kept you guessing and ended well unlike most thrillers. I'm looking forward to reading his next book 'Written in Bone'.
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Don't stray from the path!
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Of course, we've been here before but it doesn't seem to matter! This entertaining yarn manages, both, to stick the boot into organized religion and the type of small minded parochial bigotry it can feed off and inspire and, ironically, preach its own message of caution: you can run but you can't hide! Appearing to borrow from various sources, not least, from such movies as The Wicker Man, Wrong Turn, Night of the Demon and An American Werewolf in London it will also strike a chord with fans of TV's X-Files, particularly the episode `Home' in which the members of an isolated family living on the outskirts of a Pennsylvania small town give new meaning to the phrase `mother love'! Beckett certainly issues a warning to those considering leaving the evils of the city behind for the ideals of rural life investing this pastoral idyll with the stuff of nightmares and, detailing, in the process, the ghoulish, almost alien pastimes of your average hometown rustic bogeymen!
Personally, I could have existed quite well without yet another grieving widower as hero but the fact that this tale is so well written earned the author a reprieve as far as this, normally intolerant, reader was concerned. The story is well paced and the characters, largely, believable: you might even know some of them! Of course there are one or two relatively trivial irritations; For instance, Beckett can't seem to stop himself from alerting us, usually at the end of chapters, to troubles in the offing as if we're kids watching a Saturday morning cinema episode of Flash Gordon, Roy Rodgers or Batman so that we make sure to come back next week! Considering he obviously does his homework conscientiously too, his confusing psychiatry and psychology should be unforgivable: where was the editor? Nevertheless, an excellent first time effort well deserving of the acclaim that it's received.
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