A Feast of Carrion by
Keith McCarthy
hbk out May 03
Published by Constable Robinson
at £16.99
A young woman is raped, hung, drawn and quartered and left suspended from the glass dome over the great circular table in the renowned Museum of Anatomy and Pathology at St Benjamin’s Medical School. A theatrically staged death to say the least. John Eisenmenger, former pathologist and a worker at the museum becomes an unwilling detective when lawyer Helena Fleming and disgraced copper Bob Johnson, come to him for expert help. They are both unhappy with the investigation and with the arrest the police have made. This richly gothic novel is written in often lavish prose and uses the classic whodunit format of a closed circle of suspects to good effect. The ghastly hierarchy of the medical/academic world and the plethora of obnoxious characters in its employ makes for some delicious characterisation and acerbic wit. McCarthy, a practising pathologist, obviously knows his stuff and adds weight to his mystery by giving Eisenmenger emotional depth. There’s a giddy feeling to the story when we lurch from moments of black farce to episodes of savage coincidence but there is pathos too. A potent mix from this newcomer to the path-lab sub-genre.
Manchester Evening News 19.7.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
A Feast of Carrion by
Keith McCarthy
