The chemistry of death

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The Chemistry of Death (in English original: The Chemistry of Death ) is a thriller by the British writer Simon Beckett . The original edition was published by Bantam in London in February 2006. Before the manuscript was accepted by Bantam, Beckett received a number of standard rejections from several publishers.

In September 2007, the paperback was number 1 on Spiegel's top list for three weeks . It has been translated into more than 20 languages ​​and sold more than a million times worldwide. The thriller was nominated for the 2006 CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award and the 2008 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award .

action

David Hunter is a forensic anthropologist . Before the tragic accidental death of his wife Kara and daughter Alice, he was considered the best of his profession in England. Traumatized by this stroke of fate, he moves from London to the small village of Manham and becomes assistant to the local country doctor Henry Maitland. This, also a widower, lost his wife, like David, in a car accident and has been dependent on a wheelchair since the accident. Little by little, Hunter replaces the paralyzed country doctor most of the time in the practice, but does not tell anyone about his previous work.

One day the body of a villager is found on the edge of the swamp on the edge of the village. The corpse is already too decomposed to tell who the dead person is. Village policeman Mackenzie learns about Hunter's previous occupation and asks him to examine the body. After the initial refusal, Hunter agrees and identifies the body as that of the villager Sally Palmer, who, judging by the signs of decay, must have been dead for about ten days. In addition, the killer had swan wings stuck in her back. It later turns out that the London-born author had recently published an interview in which she raved about Manham: she could write better in the tranquil place than in the big city, because she felt free there, almost as if she owned her wings. When her house is searched, her dead dog is discovered and a dead weasel that someone had apparently put in front of her door.

A few days later, Lyn Metcalf, another villager, is kidnapped. The entire village takes part in the search for her, but helpers are repeatedly injured by deliberately set traps and it soon becomes clear that the killer must be responsible for the sometimes life-threatening constructions. Metcalf's body is found a few days later. David examines the body again and determines that it was probably killed by the same perpetrator as Sally Palmer. After many failed attempts, Lyn Metcalf first suspected that he was pregnant. The killer then filled her stomach with dead rabbits and her husband told the police that a few days ago his wife found a dead rabbit while walking in the woods and saw a dying duck tied to a stone pillar. The murderer "marks" his victims with animal carcasses before he kidnaps them and then "adorns" the corpses with animal body parts that he connects with the victim.

Meanwhile, David Hunter meets the local school teacher and diabetic Jenny Hammond, who is also not from the village, but moved here after narrowly escaping being raped by a taxi driver in London. Hunter and Hammond become a couple. But one day a dead fox lies in the woman's garden. Her roommate disposed of the animal carcass without knowing its meaning, as the police did not reveal any information about the perpetrator's actions. A few days later, Jenny is kidnapped.

The police first arrest David's closest friend, Ben Anders, but release him shortly afterwards. Carl Brenner, who is known as a ruthless poacher and trapper, is later suspected. When the police storm Brenner's hiding place, however, they only find rare animals that were caught for the black market. Since Hunter cannot help with the investigation, he distracts himself with house calls. In the house of the church and cemetery gardener Tom Mason, he discovers the body of his grandfather George, who apparently died some time ago without Tom Mason taking care of it. Hunter accidentally discovers a hidden air raid shelter on the property and becomes suspicious. He gains access and surprises Tom Mason, who held Jenny Hammond prisoner in the bunker and tortured him. After a fight, he manages to overpower Mason in the basement. He escapes with Hammond, unconscious from her martyrdom and insulin deficiency, to Maitland and asks him for help. But David stuns David with diamorphine and after he wakes up again, he learns the background: Maitland had already treated Tom Mason as a little boy, whose tendency to abuse animals he successfully curbed with drugs, but secretly he was fascinated by the boy's mental disorder.

When Mason went to Maitland and told him that he had just kidnapped Sally Palmer, the doctor became an accomplice out of fascination. He had the prisoner tortured by Mason to vent his aggression against his late wife, because of whom Maitland only became a family doctor in a remote village and not a celebrated psychologist. Since she had destroyed his career and also betrayed him several times, he developed a deep hatred for her and the village, which appeared to him as a prison. For torture, he gave Mason the wedding dress and the music box to his wife, who from then on let the victims dance in the dress to the music of the music box.

Since Henry can now struggle a little through persistent training, he heaves the unconscious couple into David's car. Then he apparently lets the toxic exhaust gases from the car flow into the car through a hose in order to simulate a suicide and thus to draw suspicion on Hunter. Half-stunned, Hunter starts the car, which runs over Maitland. Hunter drags himself into the practice hall and alerts the ambulance service. Hammond and Hunter survive while Maitland dies.

After the experience, the couple moves to London together, where Hunter works again as a forensic anthropologist and ponders whether Maitland really wanted to kill him, since it turned out that the hose was not connected to the exhaust and why he had not evaded the car. He interprets this as a result of a sense of guilt that led to the desire for punishment.

linguistic style

“ A human body begins to rot five minutes after death. The body, once the shell of life, is now going through the final metamorphosis. He starts to digest himself. The cells dissolve from the inside out. The tissue first becomes liquid, then gaseous. As soon as life has left the body, it becomes a gigantic feast for other organisms. First for bacteria, then for insects. To fly. Larvae hatch from the laid eggs, feast on the nutritious substance and then migrate. They leave the corpse in rank and file and follow each other in a neat line that always moves south. Sometimes to the southeast or southwest, but never to the north. Nobody knows why . "

- Simon Beckett: Die Chemie des Todes, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 2007, Chapter 1, p. 7

expenditure

Sequels

  • Written in Bone , 2007 (German cold ash , 2007)
  • Whispers of the Dead , 2009 (pale corpse , 2009)
  • The Calling of the Grave , 2010 (German decay , 2011)
  • The Restless Dead , 2016 (Eng. Totenfang , 2016)
  • The Scent of Death (dt. The eternal Dead , 2019)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helge Rehbein, book report: paperback bestseller body on the dissection table . In: Spiegel.de . August 4, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  2. ↑ Mirror list week 36 , week 37, week 38
  3. ↑ Nominations - simonbeckett.com ( Memento from February 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )