Death Mask

Book number five in the mystery series featuring forensic physician, Dr Anya Crichton.

It begins in Sydney, where a young bride, a virgin on her wedding night, presents, along with her husband, with an STD, and both claim no infidelity. Dr Crichton quickly gets to the bottom of it; the husband’s fellow football team members have been “sharing” partners, usually after drugging the women so they wouldn’t object. Anya’s study on the psychological profile of male sports team members shows a pervasive disregard for, or at best a serious misunderstanding about, sexual assault. And this study brings her to the attention of the American Professional Football League. Anya finds herself in New York City, at first simply to educate the show more players, but soon as part of an investigation into a brutal rape.

This is only the second book in the series that I’ve read. I really like Anya has a lead character. She’s intelligent, tenacious, unflappable and a strong advocate. She’s up against a pretty powerful organization this time. The team owners and star players don’t appreciate being “dragged through the mud,” and their public relations professionals are working overtime to spin the events to put the blame squarely on the victim’s shoulders.

The action is pretty fast-paced and there are several twists that keep things interesting. I also really like the potential love interest in American private investigator Ethan Rye. Makes me wonder if he’ll appear again in future episodes. show less

The fifth Dr Anya Crichton book from Kathryn Fox, DEATH MASK combines Anya's forensic physician role with an exploration of professional sport and sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct is too mild a description really - this book explores the very murky world of mob-behaviour, gang rape, drug abuse, violence and professional sport. Set mostly in America, the behaviour is something that Australian's are also more than aware of, the poor behaviour of many professional sports people hitting the headlines here with distressing regularity.

Nobody is going to be all that surprised to find out that whilst I have all the books in this series, I'm behind in reading them. I was, therefore, interested to see how this book would work for somebody who show more isn't as up to date with Anya as avid followers of the books. It did work, there's enough of the back story to not have a new reader feeling lost, but I doubt there's too much for those seasoned series followers. The book takes place mostly in America, but the world of professional sports seems somehow universal. Whilst there is some sprinkling of a sense of place, the book doesn't rely on this as a central theme. What it does concentrate on is Anya's physician role. Firstly as a counsellor within the difficult area of sexual crime and investigation, then as she is called in as a consultant expert in New York to address professional football players about the difference between right and wrong sexual behaviour.

It seemed to me that this is a worthwhile, and somewhat overdue subject area for crime fiction to tackle, hopefully providing some insight into the whys and wherefores of these men's pack behaviour. The incidence of misbehaving sportsmen is an ongoing scandal, and the issues around it - both from the victim's point of view, as well as the perpetrator's are covered in DEATH MASK. There are moments where I did feel that the book slipped a little too much into lecture mode, something that probably only affects somebody as tutorial adverse as me. But that tone and the fact that it takes a while for the main plot points to settle into position, did mean that it was a little difficult to stay with the early part of the book. Once the plot got moving, and we got into more of the "show don't tell" phase of the book, things definitely improved, and I was surprised to find that even a hefty dose of romantic tension between the two main characters didn't annoy quite as much as it normally would.

Ultimately the use of crime fiction to look hard at the ills of society is well served in DEATH MASK. The nature of those in privileged positions indulging in sexual misconduct, seemingly untouched by personal responsibility, or understanding of the sheer brutality of their conduct, is something that deserves a lot more light being shone into some particularly dark corners of the human condition. show less

DEATH MASK takes forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton to New York to work with American footballers on a subject dear to her heart: violence, sexual abuse, and drug abuse, in high profile sportsmen. The content of the novel makes it obvious that it is a subject dear to the author's heart as well. I think inspiration for the novel probably came from the headline grabbing cases of sex scandals in Australian rugby (see the link below), but such cases are never far from the limelight in high profile football codes world over. Promoters of sports like American football and Australian Rugby, Australian Rules, and soccer, want to promote the sports as wholesome and for family consumption, their players as role models, but the Australian codes show more as well as the American ones have had to take preventative action to protect their images and to ensure their players understand the implications of their actions.

I think Fox was fearful that her readers would not understand the widespread nature or seriousness of the problem, nor would they have the technical knowledge of what the problem involved. The result has been some rather extensive didactic passages in the novel. It was almost as if she couldn't allow her knowledge or her research go to waste: on rape in sport, drugs in sport, on the rules of American football, on the effects of violent impacts on the brain, even on sights to see in New York.

I think Fox fleshes out more on Anya Crichton than I remember from earlier novels, particularly the disappearance of her younger sister Miriam at an Aussie Rules football match (based I think on the Kirsty Gordon/Joanne Ratcliffe case, and before that the disappearance of the Beaumont children).

In New York Anya Crichton teams up with investigator Ethan Rye (nicknamed "Catcher") to investigate a gang rape carried by some high profile footballers, and they make a very good team. DEATH MASK leaves the path open for another novel where Anya will work with Ethan.

In a sense COLD GRAVE due to be published in August 2012 is a sequel to DEATH MASK. show less

Another interesting tale of sex crimes, this time in the US. I have to admit to missing the Australian setting in this one, although Dr Anya Crichton is still a formidable woman wherever she may be. Not being a fan of sport I was aghast at the "we are untouchable" mentality of the footballers. Happily justice is served in the end and I remain a fan of Kathryn Fox's characters.