Corpse pallor (Simon Beckett)

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Corpse pallor is a thriller by the English author Simon Beckett . The novel, which was published by Wunderlich-Verlag in 2009 , is the third story, after The Chemistry of Death and Cold Ashes , in which David Hunter plays the leading role. The English-language original edition is entitled Whispers of the Dead .

action

The forensic anthropologist David Hunter, who is still suffering from the aftermath of an attack by a serial killer, travels from London to Knoxville (Tennessee) , where he worked in the Anthropology Research Facility, better known as Body Farm meets his old, ailing teacher Tom Lieberman . Shortly after his arrival, the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation), led by Agent Dan Gardner and his new colleague Diane Jacobsen, discovered a corpse tied to the table in a heated hut in the Smoky Mountains , which was more rotten than expected.

In the hut, which was rented from a Terry Loomis, the arrogant psychologist Alex Irving puts forward a theory about a sexually motivated serial offender. While the victim is in the morgue with help from Kyle Webster, an assistant to forensic doctor Dr. Hicks, and Tom's student Summer is examined, it turns out that the fingerprints on a film can found in the hut are from Willis Dexter, who died in a car accident six months ago. During the exhumation of Dexter's body at Steeple Hill Cemetery, the cemetery owner Eliot York behaves so negatively that he is suspected after further murders.

David uses an anatomical peculiarity to show that the body of a black man lies in the coffin. During an examination at the morgue, Kyle was injured by a needle stuck in the dead body that was believed to have been planned to be exhumed . David also discovers the larva of a swamp dragonfly in the corpse and meets an unknown security guard at the door.

Professor Irving is kidnapped after a TV interview while taking his dog on his morning walk in the woods. The dog is found with a broken skull, on the murder weapon, an iron rod, there are fingerprints of petty criminal Noah Harper, who has been missing for seven months and whose body is presumably in the exhumed coffin. Jacobsen diagnoses strong narcissism in the wanted serial killer. Tom announces his early retirement at a dinner with David and colleague Paul Avery. The next day, the team discovered parts of a corpse that match Willis Dexter, as well as pig teeth in a forest on the Steeple Hill property. David is excluded from the investigation after a dispute over competencies and in the evening Tom suffers a heart attack after receiving a call at the morgue. According to his wife Mary, he called the keyword "Spanish". Paul brings David back to the team and he discovers with Tom's cell phone that his friend was called from a public phone in front of the morgue. The murderer probably wanted to lure Tom as the next victim.

After York disappears from his home, in the midst of the chaos, investigators find an anatomical skeleton and photos showing people at the moment of death. At the hotel, David learns from Paul that Tom died that night. David examines Loomis and Harper's bones and discovers fractures on the laminae , suggesting that the victims were strangled with a Spanish noose . As David leaves the morgue, he sees the peeled skin of a human hand on the windshield of his car, which serves as an explanation for the dead people's fingerprints. Jacobsen brings the endangered David to the hotel and told him that Kyle possibly with Hepatitis C has infected. Images from a surveillance camera of York in uniform on the phone remind David of his encounter with the security guard. The killer is obviously thanatophile and wants to analyze the phenomenon of death in detail.

When Paul comes home to dinner with David, he learns that his pregnant wife Sam was kidnapped in a wheelchair in a fake ambulance. The police track down the empty ambulance in the mountains and Paul drives to the spot with David. After a tour they drive on and suddenly a swamp dragonfly lands on David's car. The two men follow the trail into the forest, where they smell a corpse. You come to a garden full of corpses.

Paul runs followed by David into the abandoned sanatorium Cedar Heights behind and calls for Sam. In the bathroom they first find Summers' body and then Sam, who is tied to the garrotte. When York enters the room, the TBI also arrives, which David's car tracked down with the help of a previously unnoticed GPS transmitter. Gardner shoots York and Jacobsen then takes Sam to the hospital. The moment David discovers burns and nails on York's corpse, Kyle appears and takes Gardner hostage. David keeps Kyle busy with questions until Jacobsen returns and resolves the situation with an exchange of fire.

David returns to London and learns the further background. Irving's body was among the victims of the perpetrator, whose real name is Wayne Peters, who took the name Kyle Webster from another victim. Wayne has had contact with Pigs, Death and Steeple Hill in his previous life. A anosmia allowed him a life with the numerous corpses. Sam and Paul will be happy again thanks to their healthy baby.

background

The Body Farm in Knoxville actually exists. Beckett already used it as a background for Chemistry of Death , the first novel with David Hunter. In corpse pallor, there are numerous hints of Hunter's previous life, especially the almost fatal attack by serial killer Grace from Cold Ashes . According to his own admission, Beckett conducted personal research at the Body Farm and was given permission to use the research facility as a backdrop for his novel. Combining a fictional story with a real, scientific environment is what the author describes as a complicated task.

The marsh dragonfly Epiaeschna heros that provides an important clue, is a Headquartered in eastern North America type of aeshnidae . It lives on lakes and swamps and feeds on flying termites .

Reviews

Nicole Rodriguez from Hessischer Rundfunk praises the “linguistically and stylistically successful“ knowledge transfer ”from the field of forensic anthropology, which reaches to the limit of disgust,” in which David Hunter generates sympathy through his contradictions. "Reading Beckett requires a certain amount of stamina, and if you have a sensitive stomach, don't."

In her review for the title magazine , Beate Mainka writes that “even the last bit of credibility falls by the wayside” because Beckett only has “a little more in-depth lay knowledge” and otherwise only uses clichés. Jochen König comes to similar conclusions in his review on krimi-couch . He accuses Beckett that "almost everything was stolen from corpse pallor [...] and pressed into a half-way-fitting suit". The figures are merely “lots of flat decals” that stumble “like pulled on an invisible wire through the barely existing plot”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Interview with Simon Beckett: corpse pallor. (Video) (No longer available online.) Simonbeckett.com, archived from the original on May 31, 2010 ; Retrieved July 3, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.simonbeckett.com
  2. Species Epiaeschna heros - Swamp Darner. Bug Guide, December 29, 2007, accessed July 3, 2009 .
  3. Nicole Rodriguez: What remains when we die? Simon Beckett "corpse pallor". (No longer available online.) HR online February 3, 2009, archived from the original February 13, 2009 ; Retrieved July 3, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hr-online.de
  4. Beate Mainka: Simon Beckett: corpse pallor. Title culture magazine , February 9, 2009, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  5. Jochen König: corpse pallor of Simon Beckett. krimi-couch.de, February 2009, accessed on July 3, 2009 .