Crime author and pathologist talk about death, murder and mystery

Pathologist and author Cynric Temple-Camp. Photo / Supplied

Cynric Temple-Camp, the Palmerston North pathologist who identified the brain tissue in Mark Lundy's shirt, and Scott Bainbridge, investigator of mysteries and cold cases, will appear at a free event called The Quick and The Dead on August 25 at Hamilton City Council reception lounge at 6.30pm, and will discuss with chair Nick Clothier unusual and bizarre cases they have worked on and written about.

Dr Cynric Temple-Camp is one of New Zealand's leading pathologists. Over the years he has worked on many famous and private cases.

Temple-Camp says people imagine the job of a pathologist is only to crudely carve up the dead, but it's not entirely true.

They spend much of their time investigating, diagnosing and helping the 'quick', as the Bible calls people who are alive. While some doctors prefer personal contact with their patients and administering care to the living Temple-Camp admits to preferring the 'hard science' of pathology – the observation, testing, gathering of evidence, making deductions – search for the scientific answers to questions posed by disease and death.

'I have to confess that I am an aficionado of death,' says Temple-Camp. 'I'm fascinated by all aspects of death and the dead and I suppose that is why I am so fortunate to land up in my profession.

"Wherever I have travelled in the world I have sought out the dead and looked at how the locals treat their dead.'

In his first book "The Cause of Death", Temple-Camp lifted the lid on the most unusual stories of death and murder he's encountered during his 30-year career.

These cases include spontaneous combustion and exhumation, drug mules and devil worshippers, a gruesome killing beneath the Palmerston North Airport control tower, a mysterious death in a historic homestead, rare diseases, cot deaths, landmark cases, exhumations, and are all from our own backyard.

Cynric's latest book "The Quick and The Dead" contains true stories of life and death from a New Zealand pathologist with the unlikely, extraordinary, obscure and often tragic ways humans meet their end.

Some of the cases he covers include a dead body without a trace of trauma; alien parasites; worms of the brain; crocodile attacks and bizarre eating disorders.

In The Quick and the Dead, pathologist Dr Cynric Temple-Camp takes readers into a world of disease and death as he seeks answers for those who were unlucky, and those still alive to tell the tale.

Investigator of mysteries and cold cases Scott Bainbridge. Photo / Supplied

Scott Bainbridge is one of NZs foremost true crime authors. His early books on missing persons led to several cold cases being reopened and led to the acclaimed TVNZ series The Missing.

In his third book Shot in the Dark, Scott accessed old murder files to examine unsolved NZ murders of the Jazz Age dispelling decades-old myths and uncovering hidden truths.

Scott is writing a series of books of Auckland Noir, covering organised crime in Auckland in the 1950s and 60s, including the Bassett Road Machine Gun Murders, which was released on the 50th anniversary of that historic crime, and the first follow-up the Great NZ Robbery about the Waterfront Payroll Robbery of 1956.

This book was a finalist in last year's Ngaio Marsh Awards for True Crime. He returned to covering missing persons in his sixth book, The Missing Files, released in 2018 updating previous cases and adding in new cases he was personally involved in investigating.

This year he deviated from crime and wrote NZ Mysteries covering NZs most interesting, unexplained and bizarre mysteries such as UFOs, Ghosts and Panther sightings.

There is a frission in knowing that in all the cases Scott covers, someone- almost certainly someone discussed as a suspect- went to their grave without paying for their crime. And this at a time when most of these killings would have incurred the death penalty. By definition, his stories finish but do not have conclusions.

Bainbridge has written and presented several television documentaries relating to crime and is currently working on some TV projects and several historical crime books.

Crime author Scott Bainbridge and leading pathologist Cynric Temple-Camp talk about death, murder and mystery at next Tuesday's Hamilton Book Month event "The Quick and the Dead".

All welcome to this free event in the Hamilton City Council reception lounge at 6.30pm.

More details are available from Hamilton Book Month's Facebook page and at www.hamiltonbookmonth.com.