A field of corpses, laid out in a macabre display…A serial killer who confounds even the most seasoned profilers…A doctor whose life has been shattered by crime—plunged into the heart of a shocking investigation… In this masterful new novel by Simon Beckett, #1 internationally bestselling author of Written in Bone and The Chemistry of Death , forensic anthropologist David Hunter is thrust into his first murder investigation on U.S. soil—and his most devastating case yet.

In the heat of a Tennessee summer, Dr. Hunter has come to Knoxville’s legendary “Body Farm”—the infamous field laboratory where law enforcement personnel study real corpses—to escape London and the violence that nearly destroyed his life. He’s also here to find out if he’s still up to the job of sorting through death in all its strange and terrible forms.… Hunter will soon find his answer when he’s called to a crime scene in a remote Smoky Mountain cabin—a scene as grisly as it is bizarre.

The body is taped to a table. Everything about the crime scene—the wounds, the decomposition, the microscopic evidence—quickly short-circuits the tools and methods of forensic experts. Within days, Hunter knows he’s dealing with a serial killer, someone intimately familiar with the intricacies of forensics. All around him, egos and hierarchies clash—from the boasts of a renowned criminal profiler to the dogged work of a young female investigator—but fate keeps pushing Hunter further into the heart of the manhunt. And the killer keeps coming up with surprises: booby-trapping corpses, faking times of death, swapping bodies—finally turning his sights on after Hunter himself.…

An electrifying race against time, a fascinating journey into the world of forensic science, and a terrifying portrait of a killer in love with death itself , Whispers of the Dead is a thriller of the highest order.

西濛•貝剋特（Simon Beckett），自由記者，為英國多傢報紙與期刊撰寫各類題材的專題報導。他曾在好幾個樂隊任打擊樂手，也曾多次幫助警察搜尋毒品，並親身參與過一些警匪對決槍戰。

貝剋特創作的以法醫人類學傢大衛•亨特博士為主角的係列偵探小說自齣版以來，即在全球市場大獲成功。他不僅因此而成為2009年、2010英國最暢銷作傢，也橫掃德國的各大暢銷書排行榜，被評為全歐最暢銷的作傢之一。在美國，他的作品也榮登亞馬遜網上書店、巴諾連鎖書店和《紐約時報》暢銷書榜的前列。目前，他的這個係列小說已被譯為30種文字。

目前，他居住於英國城市謝菲爾德，潛心於繼續其“法醫人類學傢探案係列小說”的創作。