Fatal Impact (35 page)
Authors: Kathryn Fox
‘I have to learn how to read for her sake, and mine.’ Jenny reached a hand to her daughter, the other held a tissue. ‘They have classes at technical college with a creche in the room next door so we can still be together in between classes.’
This was great news. Once Jenny’s secret had come out, she had discovered how much support was available.
‘Mia looks like she’s doing well.’ Anya smiled.
‘She’s a great kid. Keeps me going. Just when I think I can’t get up, she smiles and . . .’
Anya understood completely.
Jenny handed her daughter a toy phone. ‘I made a complaint against Dylan Heyes. Did you know he tried to massage my spinal nerve?’ she said.
That didn’t sound so unusual, but Anya was no expert in remedial massage.
‘Only, he does it to women from the inside. Without using gloves,’ Jenny whispered.
‘That’s sexual assault,’ Anya said quietly while Mia pretended to talk on the plastic phone.
‘That’s what the police said. Other women have come forward too.’
Dylan Heyes and his unproven therapies had undone him, so to speak.
The text alert on Anya’s new phone beeped and she checked it as the coffees and demitasse of frothy milk arrived. It was a message from her mother.
Just finished first meeting with Megan French. We’re writing up the cases and hope to submit to the Medical Journal of Australia!!!
Anya smiled. She had suggested an epidemiological study co-authored by Jocelyn and Megan French, the hospital registrar. Jocelyn’s audit of patients at her practice had identified the numbers of immunological conditions in families and written the numbers on each file.
Megan French had performed hospital audits on cases like Jocelyn’s. Both women had been right. The numbers were disproportionate to other areas, and increases coincided with the arrival of GM foods. Not surprisingly, the cattle remained free of disease. They were slaughtered before they were likely to develop illness from the GM feed.
GM food safety would be on the public agenda again.
She texted back:
Great news! Glad you’re coming to visit next weekend. Ben can’t wait to see you x.
About Kathryn Fox
Kathryn Fox
is a medical practitioner with a special interest in forensic medicine. She has worked as a family physician, medical journalist and freelance writer. Her debut novel received international acclaim and won the 2005 Davitt Award for best crime novel. This is her seventh novel following
Malicious Intent
,
Without Consent
,
Skin and Bone
,
Blood Born
,
Death Mask
and
Cold Grave
.
Also by Kathryn Fox
Malicious Intent
Without Consent
Skin and Bone
Blood Born
Death Mask
Cold Grave
MORE BESTSELLING FICTION BY KATHRYN FOX
Malicious Intent
While investigating the drug overdose of a teenage girl, pathologist and forensic physician, Dr Anya Crichton, discovers striking similarities between the case and a number of apparent suicides. All of the victims disappeared for a period of time before taking their lives in desperate 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 game. Nothing can prepare her for the role she is forced to take in the deadliest play of all . . .
Praise for
Malicious Intent
‘Fox has created a forensic physician who readers of Patricia Cornwell will adore’ JAMES PATTERSON
‘This is a striking debut . . . a finely crafted novel’ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
‘Just the right balance of pathological detail and tight plotting. Think
ER
meets
CSI
’
VOGUE
‘Watch out Patricia Cornwell. Kathryn Fox’s experience in forensic medicine gives authenticity to
Malicious Intent’
GOLD COAST BULLETIN
Without Consent
Forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton is on the trail of a serial rapist. When two of the victims are stabbed to death, police suspicion immediately falls upon Geoffrey Willard, recently released from twenty years in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl.
Unravelling the forensic evidence, Anya is confronted with the greatest ethical dilemma of her career. If Willard is innocent, she is about to blow the whistle and destroy a fellow pathologist’s reputation. If he is guilty, her involvement has jeopardised the investigation and ensured a rapist–murderer goes free.
Only the killer knows that a mistake has been made. One that could prove fata . . .
Praise for
Without Consent
‘Unputdownable…Fox is a bold and talented writer’ WEST AUSTRALIAN
‘Brilliant and breathtaking . . . a tour de force for rising star Kathryn Fox’ LINDA FAIRSTEIN
‘Fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs will not be disappointed with this gripping read’ AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER
Skin and Bone
Detective Kate Farrer returns to duty after three months of leave following her traumatic abduction. Partnering homicide newcomer, Oliver Parke, they are thrown into the investigation of a woman burnt beyond recognition in a house-fire.
The pair is also requested to look into the disappearance of a teenage girl. Suspicion falls on the unsavoury Mark Dobbie, a steroid user who is obsessed with the missing girl’s sister.
While the pressure to identify the charred body and find the teenage girl escalates, a quadriplegic is burnt to death in his bed. Shocking links to all three crimes emerge and Kate Farrer’s past demons come back to haunt her. But she must fight them – lives depend on it.
‘She writes better than Kathy Reichs . . . Patricia Cornwell . . . must be looking in her rear vision mirror . . . The conclusion is violent, disturbing and unpickable, the reader turning pages with that weight on the chest that makes breathing difficult’ Graeme Blundell, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
‘well-constructed and strikingly written . . . brims with forensic and procedural detail and psychological suspense’ THE AGE
Blood Born
For pathologist and forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton, the death of a gang rape victim hours before she is due to give evidence at trial is a double tragedy. The violent Harbourn brothers, the girl’s accused attackers, now look like they will escape prosecution.
But the Harbourns’ trail of destruction doesn’t end there. When two sisters are brutally assaulted and one of them is killed, Anya begins working round the clock to catch the Harbourns and nail their ringleader, the deviously clever Gary. With the help of Detective Kate Farrer and the surprise involvement of star litigator Dan Brody, she begins to discover just how twisted this family really is, and what they’re capable of.
In Dr Anya Crichton’s most difficult case yet, she must piece together the evidence before a killer’s attention is turned on her…
‘Voice, pace, suspense and detail –
Blood Born
has it all’ LEE CHILD
Death Mask
Dr Anya Crichton’s latest patient was a virgin until her wedding night, three weeks ago. She now has multiple sexually transmitted infections, yet her husband has none. Is this a medical phenomenon or has something more sinister taken place?
Anya’s subsequent investigation attracts international attention and takes her to New York, where she addresses professional American footballers about the consequences of their sexual behaviour.
Then an alleged rape involving five football players and Anya is commissioned to investigate. She is immediately thrust into a subculture of violence, sexual assault and drug abuse and soon discovers a devastating truth.
Now lives, including her own, are in danger . . .
‘this . . . could have been ripped from today’s headlines’ SUN HERALD
‘Fox’s story draws us in by synthesising feminist concerns with the hard boiled world of crime investigation’ WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
‘The characters and plot are superb and the conclusion thought-provoking’ WEST AUSTRALIAN
‘The murky mix of sex, stardom and sport is a hot topic and the author handles it deftly and accurately’ BRISBANE NEWS
Cold Grave
Cocooned from the world on a luxury cruise, nothing can interrupt forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton’s time with her precious six-year-old son.
The break Anya needs is shattered when the dripping wet body of a teenage girl is discovered in a cupboard. With no obvious cause of death and the nearest port days away, Anya volunteers her forensic expertise.
She quickly uncovers a sordid pattern of sexual assaults, unchecked drug use and mysterious disappearances. Shadowed by a head of security with questionable loyalties, Anya can trust no one. Her family’s lives depend on what she does next.
One thing is certain. There is a killer on board.
‘Fox has created a winning heroine and her puzzle is a page turner. Home-grown rival to Cornwell and Reichs’ SUNDAY MAIL
‘…crime fiction that is scrupulous in its reliance on fact and serious in its moral purpose while at the same time being supremely entertaining’ WEST AUSTRALIAN
‘
Cold Grave
impresses not only with its excellent plotting but also with the amount of research that went in to making the storyline credible.
Cold Grave
is more than a whodunit; it is an expose of an industry that is often a law unto itself. This is an excellent read that I devoured in one sitting’ GOOD READING
First published 2014 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000.
Copyright © Kathryn Fox 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
EPUB format: 9781743516676
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
Cover design by ©
www.blacksheep-uk.com
Cover images: Alessandro Castiglioni / Claver Carroll
The characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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