'Giving something back' ... Val McDermid. Photograph: Colin McPherson/Corbis
After picking the brains of forensic experts for years to ensure the grisly details of murder and mutilation in their books are correct, a group of bestselling crime novelists led by Val McDermid and including Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs is hoping to give something back – by supporting a drive to raise money for a new morgue in Dundee.
The University of Dundee has already committed £1m to build the morgue, but another £1m is needed for it to go ahead. McDermid, a friend of the university's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification's director Professor Sue Black, has rallied authors including Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen and Jeffrey Deaver to join the fundraising campaign.
"I've known Sue for years and she has helped me tremendously with a lot of the sort of grisly technical detail that goes into my books. When she told me about the project for the new mortuary I thought this was a chance for myself and other writers to give something back to a community that is of tremendous value to us," said McDermid. "All crime writers rely on the help of professionals like Sue to make sure we get the details right. Giving a bit of help back in return is the least we can do."
McDermid said her novella Cleanskin stems entirely "from something Sue mentioned in passing about tattoos", while Black also helped her with the details about the identification of a 200-year-old body found in a bog in her novel The Grave Tattoo. "The stuff she's told me plays directly into my books – fascinating stuff like how you can tell from the bones where someone has been living for the last six years, and how you can tell from teeth where you grew up and where your mother was when she was pregnant with you," she said. "It's the details which, when you build them in, give a story a sense of authenticity."
McDermid has also signed up other crime writers with a keen interest in forensic science such as Stuart MacBride, Jeff Lindsay and the husband-and-wife team Nicci French to the cause. Fans who wish to support the morgue can donate money to the fundraising effort, with each pound given to the morgue allowing its donor one vote, and the morgue to be named after the author who receives the most votes.
Full story at The Guardian.
The University of Dundee has already committed £1m to build the morgue, but another £1m is needed for it to go ahead. McDermid, a friend of the university's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification's director Professor Sue Black, has rallied authors including Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen and Jeffrey Deaver to join the fundraising campaign.
"I've known Sue for years and she has helped me tremendously with a lot of the sort of grisly technical detail that goes into my books. When she told me about the project for the new mortuary I thought this was a chance for myself and other writers to give something back to a community that is of tremendous value to us," said McDermid. "All crime writers rely on the help of professionals like Sue to make sure we get the details right. Giving a bit of help back in return is the least we can do."
McDermid said her novella Cleanskin stems entirely "from something Sue mentioned in passing about tattoos", while Black also helped her with the details about the identification of a 200-year-old body found in a bog in her novel The Grave Tattoo. "The stuff she's told me plays directly into my books – fascinating stuff like how you can tell from the bones where someone has been living for the last six years, and how you can tell from teeth where you grew up and where your mother was when she was pregnant with you," she said. "It's the details which, when you build them in, give a story a sense of authenticity."
McDermid has also signed up other crime writers with a keen interest in forensic science such as Stuart MacBride, Jeff Lindsay and the husband-and-wife team Nicci French to the cause. Fans who wish to support the morgue can donate money to the fundraising effort, with each pound given to the morgue allowing its donor one vote, and the morgue to be named after the author who receives the most votes.
Full story at The Guardian.
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