Silent Witness

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Based on an Edgar-nominated A&E Mystery Movie, this slick debut by a former policeman delivers an adept splicing of the choicer elements of Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta books and Lynda Laplante's Prime Suspect TV movies with a smaller helping of P.D. James thrown in for good measure. Set in East Anglia and featuring forensic pathologist Samantha Ryan, McCrery's tale relies on both police and medical detailing in the hunt for a multiple killer. Two corpses turn up in odd, secluded places with upside-down crosses carved into the bodies and with garlands of a rare ivy nearby. Both victims, Mark James and Frances Purves, were friends of Bird, a nightclub owner with an interest in witchcraft. Bird's fingerprints are found in Purves's car, and the cord from the inside of his club's door chime is found to be the garroting weapon. An open and shut case? Detective Harriet Farmer is clearly convinced. Ryan naturally isn't so sure. Although some readers will likely find the proceedings a little too derivative, most will be engrossed by what is an expertly realized work from start to finish. (June)

Library Journal

Already nominated for an Edgar Award, British screenwriter McCrery's mystery debut will keep readers on edge with its creepy blend of ritualistic murder, devious plot twists, and police procedure. Forensic pathologist Samantha "Sam" Ryan, whose brain and intuition prove indispensable to attractive Inspector Tom and spiteful Superintendent Harriet, performs the post mortem examination on the decaying body of a naked man discovered in a Northwick churchyard. A tattoo and mutilation throw the press into a tizzy, but Sam pursues the truth. This riveting British procedural with a stellar heroine is recommended for all collections. [This was the basis for an episode of the A&E mystery series.--Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

31218178.798 McCreary, Nigel SILENT WITNESS Samantha Ryan doesn't take proper care of her ailing mother—at least that's what her put-upon sister thinks—and she's forever losing her housekeys. But when she puts on her lab coat and changes into Dr. Ryan, the Home Office pathologist, she becomes the best hope for solving a pair of ritual killings in Cambridge's fen country. Both victims have been garroted, mutilated, adorned with ivy shoots, and left on consecrated groundþand both had run afoul of unsavory club owner Sebastian Bird. So Sam's colleagues, from sympathetic Inspector Tom Adams to overbearing Supt. Harriet Farmer, are certain Bird killed them both; they take Bird's knowledge of an eerily similar 30-year-old killing (garrote, mutilation, ivy, sacred depository) and the witchcraft lore that goes back centuries as even stronger evidence against him. But Sam, who toils in her mortuary with all the aplomb of Kay Scarpetta (if with a lot less compelling fascination with grisly detail), keeps turning up bits of evidence that don't fit Bird—but that strongly suggest he's being framed by an ultimately unconvincing, though well-hidden, killer. Just what you'd expect if somebody whittled Patricia Cornwell down to TV scale alongside A&E's Cracker episodes—where alert American viewers will already have caught this first installment of Sam's adventures.