It’s in the name

Having a morgue named after you may not be everybody’s cup of tea but for best-selling crime writer jeffery Deaver (pictured), and a host of other top crime novelists, it’s an honour that they’re all dying to win! And it’s all for a good cause, as Carolin

THE MILLION for a Morgue campaign is a unique fundraising project set up by Dundee University to help raise funds to build a morgue that will adopt the Thiel method of embalming, and will make Dundee the first university to use this method exclusively.

Thiel embalming means that the cadaver is more lifelike than with traditional formalin embalming, with retained colour and flexibility, offering exciting opportunities for surgical, medical, dental and scientific study and research.

The morgue will be based at the University’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID), which featured in the BBC2 series History Cold Case.

The team have developed groundbreaking techniques in areas such as hand identification, and runs a major training programme in Disaster Victim Identification, enabling police officers to help identify victims of mass fatalities anywhere in the world.

So, you ask, what has all this got to do with crime writers? Well, the idea to involve crime writers to help raise the £1 million needed for the morgue arose from the friendship between Professor Sue Black, the director of CAHID, and crime writer Val Mcdermid.

Sue has often assisted Val with forensic details for her crime stories and the two have appeared at book events together. With Val’s assistance, nine more of the world’s biggest crime writers have lent their support — Lee Child, Stuart Macbride, Jeffery Deaver, Kathy Reichs, Tess Gerritsen, Jeff Lindsay, Harlan Coben, Peter James and Mark Billingham — and are vying for the chance to have the morgue named after them.

One of the candidates, acclaimed American thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, who has sold more than 20 million books worldwide, is making an exclusive appearance at the university on Sunday to talk about his work, including his James Bond novel Carte Blanche, and to read from his latest thriller XO.

Now 62, Jeffery has been writing thrillers for most of his life: “I wrote my first spy-type book when I was 11. Well, I call it a ‘book’ because I divided it into chapters but it was really just a short story!” he laughed.

“If you want to be a full-time writer and live a writer’s life then it involves a great deal of work and discipline, you have to produce a book every year to 18 months, and be prepared to immerse yourself in the marketing side of things. I spend three months a year travelling, promoting my books and doing interviews.

“When I take seminars, a lot of the students think they’ll become the next JK Rowling and make a million dollars. But I tell them that’s not going to happen without a lot of hard work. For a start you have to write the kind of book that you enjoy reading. If you’ve never watched a zombie film then you won’t be able to write a good book about zombies. It has to be something that interests you.

“My advice is: analyse very closely the authors you admire and — as I did when I started out — outline how they put words together.”

Jeffery is looking forward to his visit to Dundee.

“I love coming to Scotland and this is such a fun project — and exciting too because CAHID is renowned throughout the world and I’m honoured to be included in helping to raise money for this groundbreaking morgue. It’s rare that authors have the opportunity to actually be involved in the subjects we write about and to give back to one of the professions that has so generously provided us with insight into the world we explore in our novels.”

People will pay £1 to vote for their favourite writer and the new morgue will be named after the author with the most votes.

Jeffery Deaver will be talking about James Bond, country music and murder at the Dalhousie Building from 6pm on Sunday. Tickets are £5 and £3 (concessions) and are available from buyat.dundee.ac.uk or by calling 01382 384413.

All proceeds go to the Million for a Morgue campaign. The event is part of the Ignite 2012 festival, a 10-day celebration of creativity and culture across Dundee, Angus and Fife.

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver, £7.99, and XO, £19.99, are both published by Hodder and available now.