Synopsis (author website)
In Kathryn’s Own Words
“The title was inspired by the Dalai Lama, of all people!
I met him when I was sixteen and wondered what would happen if someone else with the same charisma, charm, intelligence and wit had malicious intent.
The story involves a manipulator who targets women with varying degrees of vulnerability.
In Italy, it was retitled L’ Incantatori, which means, ‘The Enchanter’.”
More about Malicious Intent
Dr Anya Crichton, a pathologist and forensic physician, finds work is sparse for the only female freelancer in the field. Between paying child support, a mortgage and struggling to get her business off the ground, Anya can’t yet afford to fight her ex-husband for custody of their three-year-old son, Ben.
After her expert evidence helps win a high-profile court case, Anya is asked by lawyer Dan Brody to look into the drug overdose of a young Lebanese girl. While investigating, Anya notices startling coincidences in a number of unrelated suicides she’s been asked to examine by friend and colleague, Detective Sergeant Kate Farrer. All the victims disappeared for a period of time, before committing suicide in bizarre circumstances. As Anya delves deeper, the pathological findings point to the frightening possibility that the deaths are not only linked, but part of a sinister plot. One in which Anya is unwillingly immersed…
My Take
My mini-review for MALICIOUS INTENT (rating 4.5)
Dr. Anya
Crichton has recently struck out to work on her own as a freelance
forensic pathologist. Work is a bit hard to find but she is gaining a
reputation as a credible courtroom authority. She is not without
friends in the police, the New South Wales State Forensic Institute, and
among the criminal barristers. Something about the apparent suicide of
Clare Matthews doesn't sit quite right: the fact that, a nun, she
disappeared shortly before she was due to take her vows, that she
suicided by jumping off the Gap, that she was 6 weeks pregnant, and that
she had strange fibres in her lungs. And now another case with
similarities crops up: Fatima Deab overdoses on heroine after being
missing for some days and her lungs contain the same fibres. Debut
publication by Australian author. It is obvious to the reader that
Kathryn Fox has a lot to say, lots of issues that she wants to make us
aware of, and sometimes this novel takes on a bit of a didactic tone.
But the plotting is so good, the tension so well built that by the end I
could forgive her anything!
Business is slow for Anya Crichton, a freelance forensic physician and pathologist. But after her evidence helps to win a high-profile case, demand for her services grows. Perhaps now she can start building up her income to the point where she can afford to fight her ex-husband for custody of their three-year-old son.
When lawyer Dan Brody asks Anya to investigate the apparent accidental death of the teenaged daughter of a local Lebanese businessman, Anya comes across something unexpected. There are links between this death and those of a nun and a doctor. All appear to be suicides, but there are similarities which make Anya question this finding in all three cases.
As she probes deeper into the case, Anya struggles to find a motive for the deaths and, through her own brand of detective work, to find the evidence which will lead her to the killer. What she finds is as unexpected as it is shocking, leaving Anya fighting not just for her own safety, but also that of her colleague, Detective Sergeant Kate Farrer and of Anya's son, Ben.
An Australian author, but doesn't feel much like an Australian setting, although the place names are there. Doesn't feel like a first novel either.
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I am re-reading this novel for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction reading group. I think I originally read the novel soon after publication. Kathryn Fox was at that time a new voice on the Australian noir landscape. In Fact she was largely pioneering this style of crime fiction in Australia. Most of this style of fiction came from British and American authors. (Barbara Seranella, Deborah Crombie, Marcia Muller, Heather Graham, Stephen Booth, Laura Lippmann, Val McDermid, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver - to name a few)
I would like my group to understand in what ways Kathryn Fox is a pioneer.
I feel that with this novel Kathryn Fox had a lot that she wanted to say (as if she was speaking from her experience and her observations). There were topics such as domestic violence that were comfortable reading about (and still aren't). This novel is very different from an Agatha Christie cozy.
We learn that domestic violence is not just physical violence.
Among the other topics that this novel touched on were the cultural differences shown in the various cases, the difficulties of being a single mother (who got custody and why), the importance of forensic evidence being documented and followed up from crime to crime, the importance of appropriate forensic funding, and of there being a place where records are centralised and indexed. She is also telling us that solving crimes is not just a matter of intuition but of training and experience.
Fox is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners with a special interest in forensic medicine. After 12 years, she ceased medical practice to concentrate on writing.
In 2005 her achievement with MALICIOUS INTENT was recognised by being shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing — Best First Novel and she was the 2005 winner of the Davitt Award for Crime Writing — Best Adult Novel
My rating: 4.6
I've also read
BLOOD BORN
4.6, DEATH MASK
COLD GRAVE
4.8, FATAL IMPACT
