‘The Killer Inside’ by Lindsay Ashford
Published by Honno Modern Fiction. ISBN 978-1-870206-92-1

Forensic psychiatrist Megan Rhys is researching into why so many prisoners in Balsall Gate Jail in the West Midlands have committed suicide. Her main source of information is the lifer Dominic Wilde, the Samaritan-trained ‘listener’ who acts as counsellor to the prison’s troubled inmates. Then yet another prisoner, Carl Kelly, dies from an overdose of heroin which has been adulterated with strychnine so the cause of death is definitely murder. Megan wonders if anything in Carl’s past is relevant; Dominic admits that Carl had told him that he had been involved in the death of a Moses Smith many years ago but never charged. Megan finds Moses’ grave; horrifyingly, in the grave are the recently-buried mummified remains of a baby. In her search for the truth Megan is supported by Dominic and her friend the TV reporter Delva Lobelo but obstructed by the police and the prison officials, enough for Megan to wonder if some sort of cover-up is going on inside Balsall Gate. Meanwhile, Megan’s feelings for Dominic are becoming rather more complicated than they should be, given the rules against fraternisation with prisoners; given also Megan’s relationship with her current lover Jonathan Andrews.

Then another prisoner dies, also of heroin-laced strychnine. Not in Balsall Gate this time, but in Manchester’s Strangeways Jail. The deaths must be connected, but how . . . ?

My first reaction on reading this book was, oh, dear, not another forensic psychiatrist. Post ITV’s Cracker series, they’re all over the place. Actually, this is a very good book, well-written and well-researched. Lindsay Ashford studied criminology at university and her account of prisons and prisoners’ lives is thoroughly convincing. If other titles published by Honno are up to this standard they are to be congratulated. Let’s see more of them.

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Radmila May