When Belinda Bauer won the top British award for crime fiction for her debut novel, she told a reporter she was surprised the Crime Writer’s Association considered it a crime novel. It wasn’t a whodunit, after all. Only three or four years later, after several later novels, did she accept that she was, in fact, writing crime fiction. Because Bauer’s books bear little superficial resemblance to the detective fiction that dominates the genre. She writes stories about damaged people caught up in circumstances over which they have no control. And Rubbernecker is a case in point. The two men at the center of the story in this haunting, off-beat mystery include an obsessive-compulsive young man with Asperger’s and a nameless man lying in a coma in a hospital bed. And the two meet only as a corpse and a student in a medical school anatomy lab.
The “sleuth” has Asperger’s and an obsession with death
The backstory in Rubbernecker is slow in coming. Following separate threads in the plot, we gradually become familiar with Patrick Fort, the student. His behavior is typical of many of those on the autism spectrum. He is unfailingly abrupt and literal-minded, missing verbal and nonverbal cues alike that we take for granted in relating to other people. He’s also obsessed with death, determined to find out where his father “went “after dying. Which had led him to study anatomy at a local medical school in Cardiff.
Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, we enter the mind of the man in a coma. He lies, half-conscious but unable to speak or move, in bed after a car crash. Nurses and orderlies swirl around his bed and those of others in the neurology ward. And one nurse in particular, a witless young woman is intent on seducing one of the doctors. She is careless at best with the patients. But that car crash victim is preoccupied with something he saw in the neighboring bed: someone murdered the patient there. Later, he himself will turn up, known only as Number 19, as a subject in Patrick’s anatomy class.
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer (2013) 434 pages ★★★★☆
The story reaches a shattering conclusion
It’s easy to understand why Bauer might be puzzled when critics call her books crime fiction. But make no mistake here. The mysteries Patrick Fort investigates are puzzling, indeed. His pursuit of the truth, however halting and unorthodox, is fascinating. Patrick and Number 19 are compelling characters, hard to forget. And the story builds to a shattering conclusion. It’s unlike anything else you’ve ever read. You will be surprised. Guaranteed.
About the author
Belinda Bauer is the author of 10 crime novels and one thriller which span the years 2009 to 2025. She grew up in England and South Africa, but later moved to Wales and studied journalism there at Cardiff University. She wrote her first novel at the age of 45 after seven years as a screenwriter. Several of her novels have won awards.
For related reading
I’ve also reviewed the author’s more recent book, The Impossible Thing (The most unusual crime novel you’ve ever read).
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