truTV – formerly CourtTV – recently held a “Search for the Next Great Crime Writer.” Winning the contest was English professor Hal McDonald. You now can judge for yourself whether the search was successful, as his debut novel has arrived: THE ANATOMISTS.

A first-person account set in 1824 London, the novel follows the exploits of two St. Alban’s med students: narrator Edward Montague and roomie Jean-Claude Legard. Being of the era when cadavers for study were not readily available, the two must go to dire lengths to acquire one: by paying for it, via a grave robber.

With corpse in their care, Montague and Legard are all set to begin their studies when they notice something is amiss about their subject’s clothes. Upon further examination, they spot something amiss about the back of his neck: namely, a bloody hole. Not only has the man been murdered, but he’s bypassed the grave entirely, from street to slab.

Even more perplexing, they find that their “friend” is supposed to be a woman. That leaves a couple of mysteries for these amateur investigators to get to the bottom of, which will take them to the graveyard and the woman’s estate, where they suspect her grieving brother of not being a sibling at all.

The most interesting thing about THE ANATOMISTS is how the title characters have to make do without any modern-day technology to assist in detecting; for them, it’s all about deduction. This they go about through old-fashioned legwork, including – gasp! – thumbing through dusty old newspapers.

McDonald’s debut certainly is entertaining, and he wastes no time getting started; the discovery of the murder happens in the first 10 pages. But the eagerness to dig right into the plot is to the detriment of Montague and Legard; other than the fact that Legard likes to utter quick phrases in foreign languages and enjoys the game of chess, there is no character development. That might be fine for a second installment of a series, but not upon an initial meeting.

And this is no fault of McDonald’s, but THE ANATOMISTS bears quite the thematic and structural resemblance to Lawrence Goldstone’s current THE ANATOMY OF DECEPTION. But instead of botched back-alley abortions as a clue, McDonald’s offers Japanese blowfish. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.
Preview it online.