The Unquiet Dead by
Gay Longworth
pbk out April 04
(HarperCollins)
at £10.99
A London-based whodunnit-thriller with a leavening of the occult thrown in. An
unusual setting is used for much of the action, the real-life Marshall Street Public Baths
in Soho, which have been closed and decaying for some years. The daughter of a well-
known actress gos missing overnight and on a CCTV tip-off, she is suspected of having
gone to the baths, which is frequented by junkies and dealers.
After an unlikely scenario in which police wearing body armour, with officers on
rooftops and a SOCO team, turn up to look for a slighty-missing teenager, she is not
found, but a search of a subterranean boiler-room reveals a well-preserved corpse who
has been there for decades. The lead character, Detective-Sergeant Jessie Driver, who
seems at odds with most of her colleagues, especially a new woman DCI, is stuck with
invesitgating the death and suffers some frightening experiences in the crumbling, rat-
infested cellars of the baths. A caretaker, mentally-deranged from a stricken conscience
after letting a boy drown there many years before, complicates the issue, as does a priest
who turns up to exorcise an unquiet spirit in the baths.
Not a bad yarn, exciting in parts and full of conflict between the police characters,
which is a common crime-writing ploy, though a great exaggeration of the real-life
situation in the CID. However, it was completely spoilt for me by the grotesque errors
in police and forensic procedure, which could have been avoided by an hour's research
in a public library. Why do authors persist in writing about things of which they know
nothing?
It can be said that authenticity doesn't matter, as novels are for entertainment, but surely
in crime fiction, the procedural matters are often central to the plot. Here we have the
Home Office pathologist (as seems mandatory in crime books these days, an attractive
young woman) who became fully-qualified a few weeks ago, thus 'her evidence can be
used in a court of law.' Really!
She would have been kicked out the first day for 'cutting off the pocket with scissors
and emptying the wallet' - the SIO and SOCOS would have gone crazy if a pathologist
tried anything like that.
Not only that, but the police say that in this case 'a Home Office pathologist is far too
expensive', so the young lady recommends them using a doctor "who is studying
forensic pathology - that way you'll get it examined without the cost of a coroner and if
he finds anything, we'll go down the normal channels!'
It was very difficult to continue reading after cobblers like that... the author starts with
two pages of effusive acknowledgements for advice, but surely her police advisers must
have pulling her leg!
An entertaining and exciting read, but just as golf is 'a good walk spoiled', this was
good yarn spoiled by a complete lack of basic knowledge which is freely available.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
The Unquiet Dead by
Gay Longworth
