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Gabrielle Lord is a stickler for research and it shows. She must have spent an inordinate amount of time studying bacillus anthracis (anthrax to you and me) in preparation for writing this latest novel. Apart from that, it is obvious she has spent long periods reading the history of Yugoslavia and forming an opinion on what motivates the men of that sadly divided country - or men of any country, for that matter. Lord's first published novel was not her first book, despite being the first accepted for publication, but seized on the mood and interest of the readers of the time. Fortress was published in 1980 and since then Lord has written many more books, including The Sharp End, Tooth and Claw, Jumbo, Whipping Boy, Salt, Feeding the Demons, Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing, Death Delights and Bones. Along the way Gabrielle Lord has picked up a Ned Kelly Award and, more recently, the Davitt Crime Fiction Prize. Now she writes full time, after a varied career during which she has worked as a saleswoman, a fruit picker, and an employment officer. She has also written scripts for film and television. Lethal Factor opens with a prologue which describes events leading up to the murder of a Catholic nun, Sister Gertrude. Forensic scientist Jack McCain, who appeared in one of Lord's earlier novels, Death Delights, is called upon to investigate. At the same time he is studying the circumstances of the death of a colleague, Doctor Tony Bonning. He concludes the agent of the death is that popular bacillus, anthrax. McCain must discover how the anthrax was delivered. Bonning is not the only victim of the disease - a postal worker who handled the parcel the contents of which were ingested by Bonning was also infected, although her condition turns out not to be fatal. Later, the wife of McCain's boss also falls prey to the spores and McCain finds himself Acting Chief Scientist of the Forensic Services. Handling dangerous material as he does, McCain must frequently don the space suit which provides the dramatic picture for the front jacket of this book- not, one would think, the most comfortable of working uniforms. Jack has many trials and tribulations concurrent with his investigations - his daughter Jacinta now lives with him and can be very, very touchy and edgy despite having overcome her drug habit after living on the streets of Sydney and becoming involved in the drug trade there. Jack's ex-wife, too, is making spurious yet vile and damaging claims against him. Then a predatory woman who has stalked him in the past makes an unwelcome return just when a more desirable lost love reappears. Echoes of Gabrielle Lord's own childhood are to be found in Jack's reminiscences of his education by Catholic nuns. Obviously these are not happy memories, a background shared by so many of today's adults who have been damaged by the religious hypocrites of earlier decades. Jack encounters inexplicably inimical lack of cooperation from the various religious, both women and a man, involved at the convent. In his place of work he must also deal with an envious and neurotic scientist who resents McCain's elevation, seeing himself as the natural successor to the Chief Scientist. Oh yes, and there is a thug going around assaulting women students at the ANU and stealing their handbags. Lord has long been acknowledged as one of the best Australian women crime fiction writers of today. To my mind, although very good, this book is not her best work. Perhaps she devoted a bit too much space to retelling the science of the scientific background of her ex-policeman/recovering alcoholic protagonist. I felt that perhaps the author had introduced too many story lines to this plot so that there was not quite the development necessary of any single story line that would have made it a more gripping tale. I didn't find any of the characters particularly enchanting and had sympathy for only one of the corpses. For a lesser author, this book would have been adequate but from Gabrielle Lord I would have expected something more involving and polished. Note: This book is only available in Australia at the time of this posting. Ask your favorite local bookseller to get it for you.
Reviewed by Denise Wels, October 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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