Customer Reviews

Whispers of the Dead

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In Simon Beckett's "Whispers of the Dead," the narrator is forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter, who leaves London for a month-long stay in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is still scarred both physically and emotionally from stab wounds that he received at the hands of a madwoman. Unfortunately, David's life has been marred by a series of tragedies from which he has never fully recovered; he wonders if he still has what it takes to do his job effectively. To find out, he accepts the invitation of his former teacher, Tom Lieberman, who invites him to conduct research at the facility that he directs, the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Center, better known as the Body Farm. This is an outdoor laboratory in which scientists examine human cadavers to learn more about decomposition and other factors pertaining to the time and cause of death.

If David had any illusions that this would be a relaxing vacation, he quickly learns otherwise. Not only is Tom clearly suffering from a debilitating heart condition, but David's old mentor is soon called in to assist in a homicide investigation. Tom wants to take advantage of David's expertise, but the law enforcement agents assigned to the case resent the Brit's presence and do whatever they can to exclude him. As the search for a monstrous fiend heats up, David is caught in the middle. To make matters worse, he misses his former girlfriend, Jenny, and is intensely lonely.

"Whispers of the Dead" is sinister and unnerving. There are enough gory scenes to turn the stomach of all but the most hardened reader, but the fascinating forensic details almost make it all worthwhile. Beckett describes the dead bodies, and there are quite a few of them, in such excruciating detail that we can almost smell the rotting flesh and visualize the maggots feeding on the corpses. Although the psychopath is another one of those weirdoes that we encounter time and again in novels of this type, his methods and motive are unique, and the author springs a number of surprises on us as the story progresses. This is an edgy and nightmarish thriller in which Beckett raises the suspense to an almost unbearable level before concluding with an explosive and violent finale. After his traumatic ordeal in Tennessee, Dr. David Hunter would do well to seek treatment from the best therapist in London.

Anyone who is knowledgable about forensics knows the body farm and what they study and do there. Dr David Hunter is in Tenneessee visiting with an old friend and doing some research in the body farm. Dr. Hunter is from England and does what Kathy Reichs and Kay Scarpetta do in this country. There is a serial killer about and he taunts and teases law enforcement with the dead he has killed and he has been a busy boy. Law enforcement has no inkling of the dimension of his miss deeds. Dr. Hunter becomes deeply involved and eventually a target for the killer. I suggest you do not start this book unless you have time to read it all at once because it will not let you put it down. This is my fourth Dr. David Hunter book and I am totally captivated. Well written, terse prose, well structured mystery. Enjoy.

Having read and enjoyed all three of Beckett's 'David Hunter' series, in my opinion this one is the best so far.

A serial killer who is enjoying being one step (or six months!) a head of the crime team.
A character who is trying to escape some haunting memories and needs to test himself by returning to the Tennessee Body Farm he
once trained at.
Some fascinating forensic facts and descriptions on decomposition.
A good plot which is well paced and keeps the tension up throughout.

All in all a very readable thriller.

In addition, at the back of the book there is some background to where Beckett got some of his ideas from along with an account of his meeting with Patricia Wiltshire, one of Britains "foremost forensic ecologists and botanists".

Dr David Hunter is still recovering from a near-fatal attack, and has left London temporarily to spend time at the Anthropology Research Facility in Knoxville, Tennessee.

`Most people just called it the Body Farm'.

This is where David Hunter first trained in forensic anthropology, and he hopes that this return trip will restore his shattered confidence and help him find out whether he is still up to the job. Given recent events, he is still bearing emotional and physical scars and he hasn't worked for some months.

When his former mentor, Tom Lieberman, invites him to assist on a murder investigation, he agrees: after all, he'll only be an observer.

But in this case, nothing is at it seems. The victim has been bound and tortured, and the body has decomposed beyond recognition - far more than it should have given the timeframe. There are fingerprints at the scene - but do they really identify the killer? Trying to track down the killer leads to the discovery of another body is found and it soon becomes clear that nothing is straightforward in this investigation. When David Hunter points out some inconsistencies, he discovers that not everyone investigating is happy about his involvement. He is, after all, British not American.

In the meantime, the killer is fascinated by death and what happens at the point of death and is not likely to stop killing. But who is the killer? How many people have they killed, and over what period of time? And how (and who) will stop the killer? When events escalate, the investigators realise that they are searching for a serial killer with a detailed knowledge of forensic pathology.

`Life's too short.'

This is Simon Beckett's third book (of four so far published) to feature forensic anthropologist David Hunter. I enjoyed this novel, as I have the other three, but did not much care for the italicised passages from the mind of the killer. For me, those passages slowed down the narrative without adding much value to the story.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Sometimes, I'm not sure whether I should love or hate Simon Beckett. Right now, I guess, I'm hating him. Hating him for having spoiled my vacation so effectively.
For no apparent reason, I have developed the habit of choosing Beckett's novels as a means of idle distraction for the long hours I plan to spend at the beach. Written in bone and chemistry of death, however, didn't only serve their purpose, but held me more than spellbound in recent years.
So I should have known better. This year it was even worse. Instead of snorkeling or taking part in other worthwhile seaside activities I delved into Becket's recent work, the whispers of the dead till the wee hours of the morning.
The plot itself loosely connects with the end of Written in bone. Dr. Hunter, still suffering from the effects of a vicious knife attack and the recent split from his girlfriend follows the invitation of an old friend to America to assist him in his work on the world famous body farm, a pathology institution in the heartland of Tennessee concerned with the decay of human remnants in its various stages.
A heavy decomposed corpse is found in a remote cabin in the Smoky Mountains and arouses the interest of the TBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Other dead bodies turn up and pretty soon the British anthropologist finds himself in middle of the ongoing investigation which once again results in a matter of life and death.
Well, an arid dustcover description like this doesn't prepare you in the least for the hell bound roller coaster the British author takes you on.
It isn't just the grisly details of eviscerated bodies Beckett often dwells on (although your stomach might take the one or other heavy jolt)
Actually, it is his pure narrative craft which draws the reader slowly but relentlessly into a psychological nightmare, you won't forget.
Did I say I hate Simon Beckett?
The guy gives me the creeps.
Please, give me more of it.

Slightly strangely I feel able to make comment on this book without having read it yet. This book was bought by me for my mother because she could not find a copy on amazon.co.uk. She had read a very positive review on the book in the Sunday Times and just WANTED a copy like now. Apparently this book came from Australia and arrived in very quick time. She had immediately read it and is glowing in her response. I trust this. She will be bringing the book for me to read in two weeks time ( and I live in Spain). This much travelled book will be discussed again - More anon

I enjoyed this book and the others simon beckett has written.I just wish he was more prolfic., it seems like a long time between books.

Forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter still recovering mentally from his near death experience (see WRITTEN IN BONE) decides to leave his London home to spend time at Tennessee's renowned Body Farm where his mentor Tom Lieberman is the director. Tom asks David to assist him on a particularly diabolical murder in a nearby cabin in the Smoky Mountains. David hesitates as he has doubts about his skills in reading the CHEMISTRY OF DEATH following his recent Scottish fiasco, but reluctantly agrees.

The fascination in this gruesome murder is the culprit's understanding of forensics; the killer made sure the entire crime scene left nothing that the death readers could interpret. The investigation turns personal when team profiler Alex Irving is abducted most likely by the same predator. David concludes a brilliant serial killer is targeting the investigative team with booby trapped corpses, body exchanges, and redoing the homicide scenes to give wrong data. Now this lethal forensic expert chooses to hunt Hunter.

This is a terrific forensic investigative thriller starring a hero who struggles with confidence as his last case still haunts his psyche and a cold blooded killer who seems to know forensic science as well as the police experts do. Throughout the fast-paced story line, the culprit provides small insights to the schemes to kill and fool the investigators. Thus when Hunter becomes the focus, the super plot spins into a cat and mouse game in which Vegas will place the killer as the prohibited favorite. Filled with suspense, WHISPERS OF THE DEAD is a fabulous entry as David gets a rude welcoming to America.

Harriet Klausner

For those of us who like a good story and forensic details - I predict that Simon Beckett will become an author in the top best seller range. I'm watching for the next book.

Author Simon Beckett has certainly found a notch for himself, his mystery thrillers cornering the market on the human body's decomposition as his anthropologist hero David Hunter, as David carries out his brutal and often blood-curdling research into death. We meet David only several months after his near-fatal stabbing. Still reeling from the evil machinations of Grace Strachan, David is looking for away to regain his edge and resolve some hard decisions so accepts an invitation from his old colleague and friend Tom Lieberman to attend the Forensic Anthropology Center in Knoxville, better known by another less formal name as the "Body Farm." The Center is a world-renowned center for research into human cadavers, and David hopes to jumpstart his professional drive. Instead, the young anthropologist finds himself caught up in a series of grizzly killings when a call comes through from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: they've found a body looks like homicide in a mountain cabin. With an invitation from Tom for David to help him do a little field work, David is thrust back into the thick of things. The body's in bad shape, naked, spread-eagled on its back, arms and legs draped over the table edges, maggots dripping from it the floor "like boiled milk," and the combination of heat and stench is overpowering.

The victims limbs had been pulled down on either side of the table and fastened to the wooden pegs with parcel tape, even David couldn't recall ever seeing so many maggots in a single body before. Together with Dan Gardner, Assistant Special Agent in charge and Diane Jacobsen, part of the Field investigations Unit, David realizes that he and Tom are battling a powerful and thoughtful killer who is letting them see he knows about details, the fingerprints left at the crime scene, "He's not testing is, he's bragging how clever he is."

The investigation turns even more bizarre with the discovery of a film canister and a finger print. Yet the originator of the print has been killed in a car crash six months before. This in turn leads to an exhumation of a body at Steeple Hill, a local cemetery, the grisly contents of a casket adding another layer of mystery to the proceedings. This was the first victim, covered in a shroud and buried, then hidden away in shame. While David works on at the morgue, processing the bodies and the unidentified remains in the casket, his presence in the investigation clearly causes friction. Reluctant to back out, his professional instincts are finally kicked back into life when the horror of the situation comes close to him, the life of his best friend is at stake and a killer lurks nearby ready to strike.

Driven by the need to get to the truth behind the victim's fate, David might only be assisting Tom but he feels as though he was a stake in the investigation. Beckett weaves into his nightmarish plot a new and vulnerable David. His backdrop to the action is striking, the forest covered slopes of the Smoky Mountains stretching far into the horizon and the horror of human remains set against a world where the outside has been abruptly cut off, "an eerie sound in a grave yard setting." The author manipulates David and his other characters into southern gothic dance, an Englishman out of place in this world of yokels and cold-blooded killers. Then there's the sudden paper trail of corpses, each one leading to the next. It is here, amid bone and cartilage and mummified skin, and the memories of the sunlit garden of dragonflies and corpses that these nightmarish scenes play out and David finds himself a number one target. While the events unfold in typical formulaic fashion, the action never lets up; it's where the innocent finding themselves prey to terrifying imposter who delights in misdirection as he slips into the lives of one of his victims so easily with the "sloughed skin from their hands." For his part David must rise above his insecurities, pushing personal concerns aside, as Tom, and other members of the taskforce reluctantly propel him to uncover the dark secrets that characterize this new kind of killer. Mike Leonard August 09.