Three years ago, David Hunter moved to rural Norfolk to escape his life in London, his gritty work in forensics, and a tragedy that nearly destroyed him. Working as a simple country doctor, seeing his lost wife and daughter only in his dreams, David struggles to remain uninvolved when the corpse of a woman is found in the woods, a macabre sign from her killer decorating her body. In one horrifying instant, the quiet summer countryside that had been David’s refuge has turned malevolent—and suddenly there is no place to hide. The village of Manham is tight-knit, far from the beaten path. As a newcomer, Dr. Hunter is immediately a suspect. Once an expert in analyzing human remains, he reluctantly joins the police investigation—and when another woman disappears, it soon becomes personal. Because this time she is someone David knows, someone who has managed to penetrate the icy barrier around his heart. With a killer’s bizarre and twisted methods screaming out to him, with a brooding countryside beset with suspicion, David can feel the darkness gathering around him. For as the clock ticks down on a young woman’s life, David must follow a macabre trail of clues—all the way to its final, horrifying conclusion.

Doktor David Hunter skłania zmarłych do zwierzeń w literackich thrillerach, które poruszają najgłębsze emocje milionów czytelników. Po raz pierwszy publikowane opowiadanie z doktorem Hunterem.

'I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. 'Tell me who you are...' Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter should be at home in London with the woman he loves. Instead, as a favour to a beleaguered colleague, he's on the remote Hebridean island of Runa to inspect a grisly discovery. Hunter has witnessed death in many guises, but even he is shocked by what he finds: a body almost totally incinerated but for the feet and a single hand. Could it be a textbook case of spontaneous human combustion? The local police are certain it's an accidental death but Hunter is not convinced. Examining the scorched remains, he finds the evidence he feared. It's clear to him that this was no accident, this was murder. But as the small, isolated community considers the enormity of Hunter's findings, a catastrophic storm hits the island. The power goes down, communication with the mainland ceases, and then the killing begins in earnest... Exploding in a series of violent acts and shocking twists, this is the compelling new crime thriller from a brilliant British storyteller.

,,Skóra. Największy ludzki organ i najbardziej niedoceniony. To łącznik naszych zmysłów ze światem zewnętrznym, bariera, na której kończy się nasza indywidualność, nasze ja. I nawet po śmierci coś z tej indywidualności pozostaje. Tym razem ona przemówi, bo nawet martwa i odrzucona, skóra nadal zachowuje ślady swojego dawnego ja. Nawet teraz może mieć swoją historię do opowiedzenia i tajemnice do ukrycia. Jeśli tylko umiesz patrzeć''. A doktor David Hunter umie skłonić zmarłych do zwierzeń. David Hunter, który wie o śmierci wszystko – w niespełna rok po kolejnym śledztwie, którego omal nie przypłacił życiem - wraca tam, gdzie uczył się zawodu. Tam, gdzie „wszędzie wokoło leżały ludzkie ciała w różnym stadium rozkładu”, a „wielkie czarne litery na bramie informowały, że to Ośrodek Badań Antropologicznych, lepiej znany pod inną, mniej urzędową nazwą.Trupia Farma''. Tam doktor Hunter ma nadzieję odzyskać wiarę w siebie i znowu „skłonić zmarłych do zwierzeń”. Tam na prośbę swego mentora rozpoczyna dochodzenie w sprawie makabrycznego morderstwa. Dochodzenie, w którym będzie musiał wysłuchać najbardziej przerażających szeptów zmarłych. W miejscu jeszcze straszliwszym i bardziej nieludzkim niż Trupia Farma.

'At first glance it could have been anything - a stone, a knotted root - until you looked more closely. Thrusting out of the wet earth, its bones visible through rags of flesh, was a decomposing hand...'It was eight years ago that they found the body buried on the moor. They were certain that this was one of psychotic rapist and multiple murderer Jerome Monk's teenage victims. Which left just two more bodies to find? But the ill-conceived search ended badly. And with Monk safely behind bars, the momentum faltered. For forensics expert David Hunter, and those others who were part of the recovery team, life moved on. And the dead were left undisturbed. Now, though, a nightmare scenario unfurls. Monk has escaped and seems to be targeting anyone involved in that original ill-fated operation. Lured back to the moors by a desperate call for help, Hunter begins to realise that neither the events unfolding now - nor those of eight years ago - are quite what they seem. And as the maniac's violent trail edges ever closer, the past is suddenly anything but dead and buried...

Eigentlich hat David Hunter die Folgen des Überfalls vor einigen Jahren verarbeitet. Dachte er. Aber dann findet er vor seiner Haustür eine Reisetasche mit grauenvollem Inhalt, und die Vergangenheit meldet sich zurück … Eine David-Hunter-Geschichte, spannend und kurzweilig.

Ein ganz normaler Tag Detective Chief Superintendent Nichols ist sich ganz sicher: Der Obdachlose war schuld! Er hatte die alte Frau um Geld angebettelt und dann erschlagen. Und das am Heiligabend. Auf Anraten der Pathologin zieht er David Hunter zu Rate. Widerwillig. Als ob er geahnt hätte, dass der ihm das Weihnachtsfest verderben würde … Schneefall In den Schottischen Highlands wird ein Serienmörder gejagt. Dann findet man zwei Leichen im Schnee. Und niemand hört gerne, was der forensische Anthropologe dazu sagt … Zwei Weihnachtskrimis mit David Hunter.

‘Composed of over sixty per cent water itself, a human body isn’t naturally buoyant. It will float only for as long as there is air in its lungs, before gradually sinking to the bottom as the air seeps out. If the water is very cold or deep, it will remain there, undergoing a slow, dark dissolution that can take years. But if the water is warm enough for bacteria to feed and multiply, then it will continue to decompose. Gases will build up in the intestines, increasing the body’s buoyancy until it floats again. And the dead will literally rise . . . ‘ It was on a Friday evening that forensics consultant Dr David Hunter took the call: a Detective Inspector Lundy from the Essex force. Just up the coast from Mersea Island, near a place called Backwaters, a badly decomposed body has been found and the local police would welcome Hunter's help with the recovery and identification . . . Because they would like it to be that of Leo Villiers, the 31 year-old son of a prominent local family who went missing weeks ago, and they are under pressure to close the case. Villiers was supposed to have been having an affair with a married woman, Emma Derby. She too is missing, and the belief is that the young man disposed of his lover, and then killed himself. If only it was so straightforward. But Hunter has his doubts about the identity of the remains. The hands and feet are missing, the face no longer recognisable. Then further remains are found - and suddenly these remote wetlands are giving up yet more grisly secrets. As Hunter is slowly but surely drawn into a toxic mire of family secrets and resentments, local lies and deception, he finds himself unable, or perhaps unwilling, to escape even though he knows that the real threat comes from the living, not the dead. With its eerie and claustrophobic sense of place, explosive heart-in-mouth moments, and viscerally authentic forensics and police procedural detail, coupled with David Hunter’s own uncanny ability to understand the living as much as the dead, The Restless Dead stands as a masterclass in crime fiction and marks the stunning return of one of the genre’s best.

It has been a good summer for forensics expert Dr David Hunter. His relationship is going well and he's in demand again as a police consultant. His life seems to be on an even keel. But not for long. The call comes from an old associate: a body has been found, and she’d like Hunter to take a look . . . St Jude’s Hospital now stands empty. Slowly rotting and silently awaiting demolition, the vast, oppressive building’s only visitors have been society’s outcasts, addicts and dealers. And it’s here that the partially mummified corpse has been discovered. Hunter is not sure how long the body has been hidden in the hospital’s cavernous loft, but he’s seen enough to know it’s a young woman. And that she was pregnant. As the remains are removed for closer examination, a floor collapses revealing a previously sealed off part of a ward. Bricked up inside this hidden chamber are three beds. Two of them are occupied . . . What other grisly secrets will St Jude’s reveal? The local community is alarmed and the police need answers. For David Hunter, what began as a challenging if straightforward case is about to become a twisted nightmare threatening him and those around him. Featuring his trademark authentic forensics, claustrophobic sense of place and nerve-shredding tension, Simon Beckett’s new thriller will leave you gasping.

"The dead didn't frighten me. It was the living that gave me nightmares." An atmospheric and utterly gripping mystery set in the shadows of the Welsh mountains, that will chill the reader to their very bones Driving back through Wales in a fierce winter storm, forensic anthropologist David Hunter is forced to seek shelter at a remote village in the Eryri mountains. But a one-night stop-over becomes something very different after a gruesome discovery in depths of the local forest. With communications down and the only road washed out by the storm, Hunter is unsure who - if anyone - he can trust. And as long-buried secrets begin to emerge, he's knows that, whatever dark past the isolated community might be hiding, there's no one he can call on for help. This time he's on his own. Forensic anthropologist David Hunter is back in this pulse-pounding thriller that explores the wildness and danger of rural life and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia.