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Dr Richard Pryor Mystery #2
According to the Evidence
A forensic mystery of the 1950s - After starting their risky venture of a private forensic consultancy, Doctor Richard Pryor - now a Home Office pathologist - and forensic biologist Angela Bray have now become firmly established. An apparent bizarre suicide in a remote Welsh farm starts them on a new investigation, which is followed by an unusual request from the War Office. And when a Cotswold veterinary surgeon is charged with poisoning his ailing wife, can Pryor's expert evidence save him from the gallows?
224 pages, ebook
First published April 1, 2011
12 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Bernard Knight
104 books137 followersAka Bernard Picton.
Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, (born 1931) became a Home Office pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. He has been writing since before 1963, when his first crime novel was published. Since then, he has written about thirty books, including contemporary crime fiction, historical novels about Wales, biography, non-fiction popular works on forensic medicine, twelve medico-legal textbooks and the Crowner John Mysteries series of 12th-century historical mysteries.
In addition, he has written scripts for radio and television dramas and documentaries, including the forensic series The Expert starring Marius Goring, in the 1970s. He has contributed to many other textbooks and has edited several medical journals - he was Managing Editor of Elsevier's Forensic Science International, the leading international publication in the field.
Currently, he is a founder member of The Medieval Murderers, a select group of historical crime-writers within the Crime Writers' Association, who give presentations at literary festivals, libraries and bookshops, to promote their work amongst the public. He is also one of the non-fiction judges for the annual 'Dagger' Awards of the Crime Writers' Association and a regular reviewer of crime books for the Internet site Tangled Web.
He was born and lives in Cardiff and as well as being a doctor, he qualified as a barrister and was awarded the CBE in 1993 for services to forensic medicine. In the 1950s, he served as a Regular Army medical officer in Malaya during the terrorist campaign, in a military hospital which he compares with 'MASH'.
-Wikipedia
Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, (born 1931) became a Home Office pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. He has been writing since before 1963, when his first crime novel was published. Since then, he has written about thirty books, including contemporary crime fiction, historical novels about Wales, biography, non-fiction popular works on forensic medicine, twelve medico-legal textbooks and the Crowner John Mysteries series of 12th-century historical mysteries.
In addition, he has written scripts for radio and television dramas and documentaries, including the forensic series The Expert starring Marius Goring, in the 1970s. He has contributed to many other textbooks and has edited several medical journals - he was Managing Editor of Elsevier's Forensic Science International, the leading international publication in the field.
Currently, he is a founder member of The Medieval Murderers, a select group of historical crime-writers within the Crime Writers' Association, who give presentations at literary festivals, libraries and bookshops, to promote their work amongst the public. He is also one of the non-fiction judges for the annual 'Dagger' Awards of the Crime Writers' Association and a regular reviewer of crime books for the Internet site Tangled Web.
He was born and lives in Cardiff and as well as being a doctor, he qualified as a barrister and was awarded the CBE in 1993 for services to forensic medicine. In the 1950s, he served as a Regular Army medical officer in Malaya during the terrorist campaign, in a military hospital which he compares with 'MASH'.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 29, 2020
A well written, well narrated series - just a little bland but still enjoyable.
August 6, 2011
This was the second book of the Dr Richard Pryor series, so there are 'stuffed' sentences bringing the reader up-to-date: "Opposite, his secretary-cum cook Moira Davison, shared a more modern settee with Sian Lloyd, a lively little blond who was their laboratory technician. On his right, Dr Angela Bray, his partner - solely in the professional sense - ..." Like the first book, Where Death Delights, the deaths all occur at the very beginning of the book and the 'mystery' is the revelation of facts during autopsy, subsequent lab work, and library research. Everything is explained by the end of the book with the level of detail which would be appropriate to your average juror. Overall a featherweight book. As a Speaker of American English, I found some of the Britishisms: 'potching about', 'dogsbody', and the 'nick' amusing. Also interesting are the product names: Rhymney bitters, Tizzer, and Cox's Orange Pippin. The book was written for a British audience so I wondered if these things are amusing to them, perhaps dated (story set in 50's), or just a habit of the author to add words.
March 27, 2021
This is a bit of a change from my usual gory, gritty crime reads being that it’s set in the 1950s & is very forensic inclined (well it would be featuring a pathologist & forensic biologist!) but that’s both a time period & genre that aren’t to my taste. Still it’s a decent enough read but a bit heavy at times on technicalities & facts for my liking. To say that there are three main inquiries featured – an apparent suicide, a murder by poison & a shooting during a training exercise – there doesn’t seem to be that much happening. This seems in part because Pryor seems to “solve” the investigations easily yet then keeps quiet about it while he checks & double checks his facts before revealing all, apparently in an effort to keep the reader in suspense (which for me didn’t work!)
At times the main focus seems to be Pryor & his little harem of women & while I didn’t dislike these characters I wasn’t particularly enamoured with them either. Angela was a bit of an enigma to me, a strong female role model for her time in many ways but yet was also portrayed as someone obsessed with shopping & with continual stress on her neat trim figure (considering the amount of three course lunches & suppers they got through I don’t know how she kept slim!). She has a mysterious ex in her past but not having read the previous book I don’t know the ins & outs of that relationship. Of the other two women, one has a crush on Pryor with the other seemingly eyeing him up as her next husband.
Overall it was an okay read with the 1950’s setting coming over convincingly enough but the pace & dialogue was a bit lacklustre for me. As I said though I’m not a fan of the forensic based crime novel & while I found myself glossing over some of the facts, I did find it interesting seeing how the science was developing. In these days of the internet you forget how long it took to do things when you were relying on the post & looking things up at the reference library….& imagine having to wait four hours to be able to make a phone call abroad! I will admit though I’m intrigued to how the women in Pryor’s life react if or when he makes a choice, so there is a slight possibility I’ll follow this up if a copy of the next instalment comes my way ;o)
At times the main focus seems to be Pryor & his little harem of women & while I didn’t dislike these characters I wasn’t particularly enamoured with them either. Angela was a bit of an enigma to me, a strong female role model for her time in many ways but yet was also portrayed as someone obsessed with shopping & with continual stress on her neat trim figure (considering the amount of three course lunches & suppers they got through I don’t know how she kept slim!). She has a mysterious ex in her past but not having read the previous book I don’t know the ins & outs of that relationship. Of the other two women, one has a crush on Pryor with the other seemingly eyeing him up as her next husband.
Overall it was an okay read with the 1950’s setting coming over convincingly enough but the pace & dialogue was a bit lacklustre for me. As I said though I’m not a fan of the forensic based crime novel & while I found myself glossing over some of the facts, I did find it interesting seeing how the science was developing. In these days of the internet you forget how long it took to do things when you were relying on the post & looking things up at the reference library….& imagine having to wait four hours to be able to make a phone call abroad! I will admit though I’m intrigued to how the women in Pryor’s life react if or when he makes a choice, so there is a slight possibility I’ll follow this up if a copy of the next instalment comes my way ;o)
February 16, 2018
Knight is among the top ten authors of medieval mystery fiction but in this series, he moves to the early 1950s. A group of experts is starting their own forensic consulting company. This is the second book of the series; they should be read in order due to developments among the characters.
Too much of the first book is about the forensic business and the relationships among the characters. There is a long series of crimes where they do the forensic work on each one. Very episodic. As I wrote in the review of the first one: The crimes should be the primary focus, with the investigators driven by the crime, but instead, the forensic folks are the focus. Do we really want to know how difficult it is to start a business??
Granted, that is less of an issue with this book than the first of the series. The characters are compelling and the relationships among them interesting. That's one reason why I decided to read the third book too, and have since done so.
Too much of the first book is about the forensic business and the relationships among the characters. There is a long series of crimes where they do the forensic work on each one. Very episodic. As I wrote in the review of the first one: The crimes should be the primary focus, with the investigators driven by the crime, but instead, the forensic folks are the focus. Do we really want to know how difficult it is to start a business??
Granted, that is less of an issue with this book than the first of the series. The characters are compelling and the relationships among them interesting. That's one reason why I decided to read the third book too, and have since done so.
July 2, 2018
My only disappointment with this book is that there seem to be no others in this series (I read the three books but Book 3 first, Book 1 second and Book 2 last).
Such a shame these have been really good - I have enjoyed the picturesque scenery described, the characters, the explanations of the medical terms, the characters involved and the whole three books.
I would love there to be more of this particular series although I know that 'Bernard Knight' has also written other series this is the one that I decided on first.
Such a shame these have been really good - I have enjoyed the picturesque scenery described, the characters, the explanations of the medical terms, the characters involved and the whole three books.
I would love there to be more of this particular series although I know that 'Bernard Knight' has also written other series this is the one that I decided on first.
November 2, 2018
Not quite what I was expecting, but a quietly entertaining read. The story was a little bit too cerebral so perhaps, for me, could've done with a bit more physical action, but nevertheless the characters were well drawn and the period detail gave the book depth.
May 5, 2017
I really enjoyed this book it was an interesting read would like to read more by this author
May 28, 2024
3.5 stars
January 29, 2011
This is not a series everyone will enjoy. There's a lot of talking and very little action. Imagine your typical Scotland Yard mystery from the pathologist's perspective: he might appear at the crime scene, and he might get a moment of glory during the autopsy or trial, but otherwise the investigation happens out of his sight. In this series, the pathologist and his team of forensic consultants are front and center. Throughout each book the team is brought in to consult on several cases, some of which get one line or paragraph; some of which span several chapters. Some times they are brought to a recent crime scene; some times they are brought in during the trial to review evidence. Since much of the action happens off camera, so to speak, there are lots of meetings that describe events that have happened elsewhere and lots of meetings to describe what might happen later.
That said, I enjoy the series. I like the characters and Knight's descriptions of 1955 Wales & England. (I'll assume the descriptions are fairly accurate, since the author lived there & then...) The one thing that bothered me about this particular book was Knight's attempt to create suspense by saying something along the lines of "Richard explained his theory to the lawyer for the defense. 'Really?', said the lawyer, 'you think that will clear our client?'" - then continuing to leave out most of the details until Richard appears in court as an expert witness. I can see why Knight took this approach, but I don't think it worked particularly well.
That said, I enjoy the series. I like the characters and Knight's descriptions of 1955 Wales & England. (I'll assume the descriptions are fairly accurate, since the author lived there & then...) The one thing that bothered me about this particular book was Knight's attempt to create suspense by saying something along the lines of "Richard explained his theory to the lawyer for the defense. 'Really?', said the lawyer, 'you think that will clear our client?'" - then continuing to leave out most of the details until Richard appears in court as an expert witness. I can see why Knight took this approach, but I don't think it worked particularly well.
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February 6, 2012Richard Pryor and his "team" are working in Wales on forensic medicine in the 1950's. Richard gets called out to various unattended deaths or to suspicious deaths to perform autopsies, as well as routine post-mortems when the attending physicians or local coroner is away. His team consists of another doctor, Angela, who does the biological/blood work, a lab assistant who works with all the fancy new machinery and a secretary/housekeeper.
Three different cases are looked at in this book, a possible murder by a veterinarian of his dying spouse, a death that first looks like an accident, then a military case that was deemed an accident but a widow believes it was murder.
The most interesting thing about these books is the science around forensics. We are so used to DNA and fingerprints and all the sciences used to examine a dead body that we forget how new most of that science is. Yes, there were fingerprints back then but they had to be compared by hand to fingerprint cards and those cards were few and far between. The study of the body chemistry and how it breaks down and how fast (or slow) it happens was a new frontier in the mid-1950's and reading about it is a lot of fun.
Looking forward to the next in the series.
Three different cases are looked at in this book, a possible murder by a veterinarian of his dying spouse, a death that first looks like an accident, then a military case that was deemed an accident but a widow believes it was murder.
The most interesting thing about these books is the science around forensics. We are so used to DNA and fingerprints and all the sciences used to examine a dead body that we forget how new most of that science is. Yes, there were fingerprints back then but they had to be compared by hand to fingerprint cards and those cards were few and far between. The study of the body chemistry and how it breaks down and how fast (or slow) it happens was a new frontier in the mid-1950's and reading about it is a lot of fun.
Looking forward to the next in the series.
July 10, 2011
This historical mystery, set in the 1950's, looks at that period in the development of forensic medicine as exemplified by Dr. Richard Pryor, who--with this partner, scientist Angela Bray--has just opened a private forensics consultancy. There are several dead bodies in this book--the question is, were they murdered, and if so, how. Three different, unconnected cases are interwoven, with Richard and Angela, and their staff of Sian, the lab technician, and Moira, the housekeeper and typist, acting a Watson-like role. This post-austerity period isn't covered much in fiction, but the plot might have worked better as three separate long short stories.
January 6, 2011
I picked this one up by accident and if I had realised that it was the second in a series then I would have gone for the first instead.
It was an easy and enjoyable enough read but it reminded me of the old Doctor Finlays Casebook. I assume that it is semi autobiographical and much of the charm is in the interplay around the characters at their Wye Valley base , rather than a 'who-dun-it' of the cases.
I must have enjoyed it as I have just got the first book "Where Death Begins" to read next.
It was an easy and enjoyable enough read but it reminded me of the old Doctor Finlays Casebook. I assume that it is semi autobiographical and much of the charm is in the interplay around the characters at their Wye Valley base , rather than a 'who-dun-it' of the cases.
I must have enjoyed it as I have just got the first book "Where Death Begins" to read next.
July 6, 2012
I read this book for my mystery discussion group. The story centers around pathologist Richard Pryor who opens up his own forensics practice in the Wye Valley bordering England and Wales in the 1950s. Not really a cozy mystery, its more a forensics procedural, but very interesting to know what was happening in that field in the 50s. Great characters including the three women who work in the practice with Pryor. Great sense of place and time.
February 17, 2013
This, the second book in the Richard Pryor series, is a strong sequel to the first.
Deliciously authentic 1950s forensic pathology with a touch of police investigation and court process.
We also see the 50s-esque sexual tension bloom between Dr Pryor, Moira Davidson & Dr Angela Bray, all of which looks like it may very well peak in the third coming novel.
A great read, but maybe not for everyone.
Deliciously authentic 1950s forensic pathology with a touch of police investigation and court process.
We also see the 50s-esque sexual tension bloom between Dr Pryor, Moira Davidson & Dr Angela Bray, all of which looks like it may very well peak in the third coming novel.
A great read, but maybe not for everyone.
April 16, 2015
For those mystery readers that like cozy mysteries or just a short quick read, these are nice. They take place in 1950s Wales so the pace is much slower - there was more talking back then and less technology. The main characters are early forensic scientists that help with coroner activity and legal evidence - both civil and criminal. While the writing is average, the stories are just fine for something quick and easy.
July 13, 2016
Fans of contemporary forensic mysteries may want to give this a try. A charming 1950s-era British pathologist solves crimes using the scientific tools and knowledge available at the time. Filled with interesting historical and scientific details, as well as a good sense of British life 50+ years ago. This is a series, so I've read it out of order (this is apparently the second), but discovered it on the library shelf and thought I'd give it a try.
August 30, 2012
A good follow on from the first book.
From other comments I must emphasise that these books are not an action packed police drama. It is more Frost than Sweeney.
You cannot fault the detail and authenticity.
The sexual tension is very 50s, very proper for the class of characters.
It seems quaint in these enlightened times.
From other comments I must emphasise that these books are not an action packed police drama. It is more Frost than Sweeney.
You cannot fault the detail and authenticity.
The sexual tension is very 50s, very proper for the class of characters.
It seems quaint in these enlightened times.
May 14, 2013
This was another new series for me - an audiobook from Audible that I thought I would try. Will have to go back and read the first one.
Very nostalgic as I can remember so many of the things casually mentioned. A private forensic path lab at this time - didn't know thet existed. Very different from CSI.
Very nostalgic as I can remember so many of the things casually mentioned. A private forensic path lab at this time - didn't know thet existed. Very different from CSI.
August 10, 2011
The characters are appealing and the stories within are interesting. However, the writing is a little stiff and declarative - he tells us what a character is like (using adjectives) rather than showing us through the character's actions and thoughts.
April 21, 2012
A very low key, slow-paced plot that is extremely predictable. However it is well written and the period detail of the UK in the early 50s is quite interesting. It is less 'mystery' and more 'proceedural'.
September 27, 2013
A forensic consultant gets involved in a number of suspicious deaths.
The three plot strands all felt dated and I found the writing style to be old fashioned / too slow. Some of the forensic evidence was interesting.
I gave this 3 stars but it is really rates 2.5.
The three plot strands all felt dated and I found the writing style to be old fashioned / too slow. Some of the forensic evidence was interesting.
I gave this 3 stars but it is really rates 2.5.
October 29, 2014
Did not like. The pace was glacial and in the end not much happened. Thank goodness for my library as this book's price was ridiculous. Too much emphasis on food, fashions and the vehicles being driven. And ALL the women love Richard. I'm done with this series.
September 16, 2011
More forensic detail than I liked but good story line.
February 6, 2013
Found it a bit of a slog. Interesting enough but not enough to keep my interest unfortunately.
June 10, 2013
Easy reading mystery about a 1950's pathologist in Wales. Made more interesting because the author is a retired pathologist making it more authentic
October 7, 2013
really enjoyed this book ..what a good story
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February 10, 2016Another delightful book by Bernard Knight. Colorful characters, good plot development, great murders! Highly recommended!
March 25, 2016
Not badly written, but I didn't enjoy the style.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews