The Chemistry Of Death by Simon Beckett

[Tino]

Just finished reading this last week and really enjoyed it, a real page turner.
I managed to read it in two sessions, as it's one of the best first books of a British author, I've read in a long time.

It's written very much in the tradition of books by Kathy Reichs or Kathryn Fox but whereas they are both from a medical background, Beckett was a journalist who wrote this book after doing a piece for the his newspaper about an American Forensic Training Establishment in Tennessee (The Body Farm).

The story focuses upon ex forensics expert David Hunter who moves to start a new life as a doctor in a remote Norfolk village. However, his expertise are soon called in, when a body is found and another person goes missing.

It looks like this character may be developed into a series, like Cornwell's Scarpetta series, which would be interesting to follow, lets just hope it doesn't lose its way like recent scarpetta has done!