The Devil’s in the Detail: A Dublin & Edinburgh Unesco Cities of Literature Event : Val Mcdermid & Professor Sue Black

Forensic anthropologists and crime writers share a common preoccupation with violent death, except that one is concerned with the how and the when while the other is concerned with the why.

Val McDermid and Dr Sue Black compare notes in an event which is sure to illuminate those areas of criminal violence we’d perhaps rather not think about but which exercise a powerful fascination for us all.

Val McDermid needs little introduction to crime fans.  In a writing career that spans more than three decades and roughly forty books she has become one of the key figures in British crime writing and her novels have won countless literary awards. In 2010 she won the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement.

Few people are as familiar with death as Professor Sue Black. As a forensic anthropologist she sees it in the form of human remains; at scenes of murder, at burial sites and in her lab. Black’s astonishing book, All That Remains, offers fascinating insights into mortality and the value of forensic science.