Places change over time, and so do people’s priorities. Economies change, too, and so do businesses and governments. All of this means that buildings that were once in regular use are sold. If they can’t be sold, they’re abandoned until something can be done about them. And that ‘something’ can take a long time. That’s why there are abandoned houses, schools, medical facilities, warehouses, and so on. Those places may be creepy, and they don’t improve the local property values. But they are really useful to crime writers. After all, those places have an atmosphere all their own and can add to the suspense in a novel. They’re also effective places to hide a body…
In John Dickson Carr’s Hag’s Nook, we are introduced to Tad Rampole, a recent university graduate who’s taking some time to travel. His mentor recommended that he meet Dr. Gideon Fell, so Tad has come to England for just that purpose. On the way, he meets a young woman called Dorothy Starberth, and the two take a liking to each other. From Fell, Tad learns that the Starberth family has a long history of association with nearby Chatterham Prison, which is now disused. Several generations of Starberth men were prison governors until the prison closed. In fact, the prison still plays a role in the Starberths’ lives. On the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, each Starberth male spends the night in the old governor’s room at the prison. Now it’s the turn of Dorothy’s brother Martin. It’s whispered that there might be a curse on the family, since more than one Starberth man has died violently, so Martin’s a bit nervous, but he goes along with the ritual. When he himself is found dead, Tad and Gideon Fell put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Fictional Ashecliffe Hospital For the Criminally Insane figures heavily in Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island. Located off Massachusetts’ Outer Harbor, Shutter Island is home to the hospital, which houses the most dangerous of patients. When one of them, Rachel Solano, escapes, US Marshal Teddy Daniels, and his assistant, Chuck Aule, are sent to the island to find her. But there’s more to the hospital and the island than it seems on the surface, and some very dark things are going on there. In the novel, Ashecliffe is not abandoned; it’s still in use. But Medfield State Hospital, where the movie adaptation was filmed, has been abandoned since 2003. Visitors can tour the grounds around the hospital, although the buildings themselves are not open to the public.
In one plot thread of Peter Temple’s Truth, Melbourne Inspector Stephen Villani, is faced with a difficult case. The mutilated bodies of three drug dealers have been found in an abandoned warehouse. It could be a case of gang warfare. After all, it’s not unheard of for gang feuds to be settled that way, and abandoned buildings like warehouses are good places to hide the evidence. It could be something much more sinister, though, and Villani is going to have to find out what he can about the dead men in order to get to the truth.
As Peter May’s The Blackhouse begins, two Isle of Lewis teenagers, Ceit and Uilliam, slip off to an abandoned shack for some alone time. Instead of the intimacy they planned, they discover the body of Angel Macritchie. The police are called in and the search for the killer gets underway. Macritchie’s murder closely resembles a murder that’s recently taken place in Edinburgh, so Edinburgh police officer Finn Macleod is seconded to the Isle of Lewis to help in the investigation. For Macleod, it’s a homecoming, but it’s not at all a happy one. He had his reasons for leaving in the first place, and he doesn’t want to dredge up old history. Still, he has a job to do, so he starts searching for answers. In the process, he has to confront his own past.
There’s also Sinéad Crowley’s Can Anybody Help Me? In the novel, Yvonne Mulhern and her husband Gerry have recently moved from London to Dublin with their newborn daughter, Róisín. Gerry wanted to take advantage of a major career opportunity, and Yvonne went along with the idea, but she hasn’t settled in. She doesn’t really have friends in Dublin, and she doesn’t get along with her mother-in-law. With Gerry gone all day, Yvonne’s left by herself to meet the nonstop needs of an infant. Feeling lonely and stressed, she learns of an online group called Netmammy and joins it. She’s welcomed by the other members, and she finally begins to feel a bit better. Then, one of the members goes ‘off the grid,’ and Yvonne gets concerned. She goes to the police, but they can’t be much help. Then, the body of a woman is found in an abandoned apartment. Detective Sergeant (DS) Claire Boyle investigates and learns of what Yvonne had told the police. Could this be the body of the missing Netmammy member? If so, what does that mean for the other members of the group? If not, Claire’s got two investigations to pursue.
It’s not easy to hide a body. That’s why abandoned buildings like hospitals, warehouses, and prisons can be useful to fictional criminals. Perhaps they’re not the most visually appealing places, but they can serve a purpose…
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Freyr’s Abandoned Places.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 