In 2002 I went to Knoxville, Tennessee to write an article for the Daily Telegraph Magazine on the National Forensic Academy. The Academy had only recently opened, offering intensive - and exceptionally realistic - forensic training for US police officers and crime scene investigators. To recreate a fire scene they would burn down a real house that was scheduled for demolition. For blood spatter analysis they would use expired human blood from a blood bank. And to learn how to carry out a body recovery, they went to the only place in the world where they could simulate the process with real human cadavers - the Body Farm.
The outdoor Anthropology Research Facility, to give it its full title, was set up in 1980 by forensic anthropologist Dr William Bass. His aim was to create a dedicated facility where the process of decay and decomposition could be investigated, and more accurate methods found of determining the all-important time-since-death - a vital tool in any murder investigation.
During the five days I spent there, I watched the NFA students put through their paces with a variety of simulated crime scenes, all recreated as closely as possible using actual human remains. One day I was cheerfully told to put down my notepad and tape recorder and help with recovering the two bodies that the students were carefully unearthing from a woodland grave. Sweating in the heat and dirt as the skeletal remains slowly emerged was a sobering, yet fascinating experience. And what started off as a one-off piece of journalism took on an entirely different aspect.
Back in the UK, I was taken up by the idea of a novel based around what I'd seen and experienced in Tennessee. Gradually, the concept for Dr David Hunter took shape: a British forensic anthropologist schooled in the techniques and science being developed at the Body Farm. A man who, for all his familiarity with the physical processes of death, is still no closer to understanding its essential mystery.
The resulting novel I called The Chemistry of Death. Hopefully it will prove compelling, frightening, and even moving enough to do its subject matter justice.
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The outdoor Anthropology Research Facility, to give it its full title, was set up in 1980 by forensic anthropologist Dr William Bass. His aim was to create a dedicated facility where the process of decay and decomposition could be investigated, and more accurate methods found of determining the all-important time-since-death - a vital tool in any murder investigation.
During the five days I spent there, I watched the NFA students put through their paces with a variety of simulated crime scenes, all recreated as closely as possible using actual human remains. One day I was cheerfully told to put down my notepad and tape recorder and help with recovering the two bodies that the students were carefully unearthing from a woodland grave. Sweating in the heat and dirt as the skeletal remains slowly emerged was a sobering, yet fascinating experience. And what started off as a one-off piece of journalism took on an entirely different aspect.
Back in the UK, I was taken up by the idea of a novel based around what I'd seen and experienced in Tennessee. Gradually, the concept for Dr David Hunter took shape: a British forensic anthropologist schooled in the techniques and science being developed at the Body Farm. A man who, for all his familiarity with the physical processes of death, is still no closer to understanding its essential mystery.
The resulting novel I called The Chemistry of Death. Hopefully it will prove compelling, frightening, and even moving enough to do its subject matter justice.
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