Take 2

So last night I hit a page in James Herbert's ASH which really disturbed me -- and yes I am fully aware it's a horror novel and is meant to be disturbing, but not like this. This was cheap.

Y'see, Herbert's cutesy-ludicrous assassin Cedric Twigg and his apprentice Nelson Eddy-erm Eddy Nelson- wind up taking responsibility for a botched assassination. No worries there. But Herbert names the victim and describes the circumstances. David Kelly, found to have committed suicide by the Hutton Inquiry. It mimics the manner of Kelly's tragic suicide at Harrowdown Hill.

David Kelly was a British scientist and expert on biological warfare, employed by the British Ministry of Defence, and formerly a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. He came to public attention in July 2003 when an unauthorised discussion he had off the record with a BBC journalist, Andrew Gilligan—about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—was cited by the journalist and led to a major controversy. Kelly's name became known to the media as Gilligan's source, and he was called to appear on 15 July before the parliamentary foreign affairs select committee, which was investigating the issues Gilligan had reported. Kelly was questioned aggressively about his actions. He was found dead two days later.

The second trip was from 5 June 2003 to 11 June 2003, when Kelly went to view and photograph two alleged mobile weapons laboratories as a part of a third inspection team. Kelly was unhappy with the description of the trailers and spoke off the record to The Observer, which, on 15 June 2003, quoted "a British scientist and biological weapons expert, who has examined the trailers in Iraq." The expert said:

They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.

Kelly was the source of that quote.

The family have already been subjected to crackpot conspiracy theories. The book The Strange Death of David Kelly was serialised in the Daily Mail before publication in November 2007. Family members of Kelly expressed their displeasure at the forthcoming publication, the husband of Kelly's sister Sarah saying, "It is just raking over old bones ... I can't speak for the whole family, but I've read it all [Baker's theories], every word, and I don't believe it." In his book Baker argued that Kelly did not commit suicide and examined the many unanswered questions he says surround the incident.

So, Herbert has decided that it's fair game to rake over not-so old bones, and rather distastefully had his 'inner circle' botch the assassination. This leaves me feeling like a hypocrite for pondering if 9/11 should be fair game, or answers my own question, because upon reading this drivel my first response was to close the book. I don't really feel like picking it up again.

Already we've had Diana's car wreck and the obvious conspiracy crap about a baby inside her. Now Kelly. It feels like in a desperate need to be edgy and relevant James Herbert has just lost distance and sense of what it means to be a story teller.

But at least I have answered my own question about when something can be considered fair game. With people still campaigning for a proper inquest into Kelly's death the answer in this case is not yet.