LoveReading Says
This elegantly engaging novel of detection sees an antiquarian book dealer, Anthony Sparrow, investigate the life and death of a leading haematologist. “Our effects really do give us away,” Sparrow explains. “‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ as they used to say in the Westerns of my youth. Someone has to do it for them”. Which is exactly what Sparrow does when he pieces together the papers of a man who’d been “what I once yearned to be: a physician.”
What follows is Sparrow’s presentation of, and commentary on, the diaries and papers of this physician. We learn of his court appearance, which saw him thusly questioned by a QC: ”So, Professor Anstruther, on what date did you become aware that the Factor VIII you were prescribing to your haemophiliac patients, made from pooled blood donations, might be contaminated by the AIDS virus?” As documents reveal details of complex medical cases, and patients who died, the professor’s personality and humanity come to the fore - his fragilities as a ninety-year-old, his sense of duty and care - as does a growing sense of conspiracy. When Sparrow reads that the professor was most likely smothered to death, he sets about investigating papers connected to the smotherer.
With each narrative strand brimming with revelations and finely observed personal detail, this is a sharp and suspenseful mystery.
Joanne Owen
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About Gillian Galbraith
Gillian Galbraith grew up near Haddington. For seventeen years, she was an advocate specialising in medical negligence and agricultural law cases. Since then, she has been the legal correspondent for the Scottish Farmer and has written law reports for The Times. She lives deep in the country near Kinross with her husband and daughter, plus assorted cats, dogs, hens and bees.
Below is a Q&A with this author
What was the best thing about being an advocate?
It’s a very stimulating job – you have to quickly come to grips with the facts and put together a convincing argument. I learned something new every day.
And what's the best thing about being a writer?
When things are going well you can lose yourself entirely. Writing becomes more vivid than actual life for that moment. Not to mention the freedom to drop everything and walk the dogs.
Considering the number of male detectives in crime fiction, why did you choose to make your main character a woman?
I find women tend to be more curious about people, increasing the scope for using psychology as a detection tool which intrigued me. There are lots of fictional male detectives and if fiction is to mirror life then there should be female ones, too.
How has Alice Rice changed over the course of the Alice Rice Mysteries?
Alice is smart and capable, but she's also trying to make it in a macho world. She’s more confident in general and, even when she doubts herself, she has enough belief in her own judgement to pursue her own lines of enquiry.
If you could give Alice one piece of advice, what would it be?
Expend less of her energy on her job and more on her life.
Considering the number of male detectives in crime fiction, why did you choose to make your main character a woman?
I find women tend to be more curious about people, increasing the scope for using psychology as a detection tool which intrigued me. There are lots of fictional male detectives and if fiction is to mirror life then there should be female ones, too.
How has Alice Rice changed over the course of the Alice Rice Mysteries?
Alice is smart and capable, but she's also trying to make it in a macho world. She’s more confident in general and, even when she doubts herself, she has enough belief in her own judgement to pursue her own lines of enquiry.
If you could give Alice one piece of advice, what would it be?
Expend less of her energy on her job and more on her life.
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