FORTY YEARS OF MURDER

by Keith Simpson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1979

Memoirs of a veteran British crime pathologist--case by case, autopsy by autopsy, rape by rape, murder by murder, bones and blood and pubic hair galore. It's a grisly catalogue, which Simpson delivers with expert, genial directness and occasional macabre glee (""Fun, without disrespect for the dead, is where you look for it""), but only a few of the investigations provide fascination that goes beyond the strictly gruesome. The stand-outs: the ""Acid Bath"" case, with Simpson identifying a murder victim from the gallstone and bone pieces found in the fatty residual sludge; the Trist Case, with Simpson fighting a Portuguese coverup to prove (long-distance) that an English vacation couple died of carbon monoxide, not food-poisoning (""a triumph for English obstinacy""); and Simpson's ground-breaking use of a murderer-rapist's teethmarks on the victim's breast to establish identity. Otherwise, it's the predictable business of determining time of death (in one case from the larval period of the maggots on the body), appraising the angle of knife wounds, matching blood types and hairs, etc. Plus a few lurid asides--""Self-suspension is not always suicide,"" since it may be masochistic sexual fun gone wrong--and full attention to the tactical (but ethical) matter of how-to-testify-in-court as a medical expert. With a dry approach that includes non-medical police detection details whenever appropriate, this has some sketchy, intermittent appeal for true-crime buffs; but mostly it's for the ghoulishly inclined (photos here too) who love TV's pathologist Quincy but long for more explicit medical/sexual data.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION