Joan's picks: The Spoiled Heart and The Final Diagnosis

The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota: Nayan Olak is a union man through and through, who feels his time has come to take on the leadership of Britain’s largest union and is almost guaranteed the job. He’s never recovered from losing his mother and son in a house fire 20 years ago, but a relationship with Helen, a mysterious woman who’s returned to his town with her teenage son after many years away, offers some kind of a future. Nayan though is a man on the edge of a precipice, and he’s about to be blindsided. The author also wrote the wonderful China Room which was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

The Final Diagnosis by Cynric Temple Camp: He’s a forensic pathologist and the author of two previous books both of which were bestsellers. He says that the 'if' of death is certain. The 'when' is unknown. It’s the 'why' that really gets people's interest and these are more strange-but-true stories of death, disease and murder, as well as new perspectives on high-profile cases, including the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, the trial of Mark Lundy, and the ill-fated journey of Ansett New Zealand Flight 703.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Joe.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
McKenzie joins me now to talk books. Hello, good morning,
Good Dave. You with us at the Spoiled Heart by
son Jeev Sahota. Tell me about this.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
He is, I think I'm correct in saying an English writer.
I read one of his books about three or four
years ago called China Room, which I adored, And you're
nodding you read it too, h Yeah, very very good.
It was actually long listed for the Booker Prize, and
I'm rather hoping that we might get to see this
one on the Booker list as well. It's the story
of a guy called Nayan Olak who is a union organizer.

(00:43):
He's a union man through and through, and the time
has finally come for him to try and take the
top job at the Britain's biggest union and he's pretty
much guaranteed the position, so he's very optimistic going through
his campaign until a young woman stands against him and
things suddenly start to go a little bit pear shaped.

(01:03):
But the poor guy has never recovered from losing his
son and his mother in a house fire. About twenty
years ago, and things have been really tough for him
over the years, which is why works come to be
so important to him. But he meets up with a
woman called Helen who arrives back in the town where
he lives after having been away for quite a long time,

(01:23):
about twenty years I think, and she brings her teenage
son with her, and he forms a relationship with her,
and he thinks that he's looking at the prospect of
some kind of happy future, and he bonds really well
with the teenage son, who in many ways reminds him,
of course, of the son that he lost. But what
he doesn't realize, and reading the book you do is
that he is a man on the edge of a

(01:44):
precipice and everything is about to go completely not the
way that he was opening.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Okay, yeah, sounds intrigued.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
The Final Diagnosis is a new book from the forensic
pathologist Kenrick temple Camp.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yes, it certainly is. Our listeners may remember his earlier books.
This is the third and what I guess you could
call a trilogy. The first one was The Cause of Death, Yes,
the second one was The Quick and the Dead. Terrific
titles and now the final diagnosis, I guess because it's
the final part. And this is fascinating stuff as a pathologist,
the work that you get to do, the exploration of

(02:19):
people's bodies, the putting together all of the clues. Reading this,
in some ways I sometimes felt a bit as if
I were watching House again. Do you remember the ESU
Lorrie TV show. So he gets particular scenarios which need
to be worked through so that he can arrive at
what will be determined to be the cause of death,

(02:40):
and in doing so he just does the most Some
of it's incredibly glory, the work that they have to
do on these bodies that they get. But he's also
interesting in a wider sense because he in this book
he gives you his spin on things like COVID, what
happened when it was first announced that COVID was coming
and it was likely to kill thousands and thousands of people,
and the work that they did at the Palmeston North

(03:02):
Hospital to get ready for that. Also the time, if
you recall, when the ants Yet plane crashed down in
the Muna WE two on its way into Parmeston North Airport.
They were told there were twenty one passengers and crew
on board, and they had to get the mortuary ready
for what they thought might be twenty one bodies and
the work that goes into that. He has a particular
take on things like the Mark Lundy crime, which of

(03:25):
course I don't think that he was the pathologist for,
although I'm not entirely sure about that, but he certainly
does not believe in Mark Lundy's innocence, and he tells
you why, and he talks about the fact that eyewitness
recollection and memories are so often so inaccurate. So he
touches on the Ben Smart and Delivery Hope disappearance down

(03:45):
in the Marle prosounds, and he has a particular perspective
on that. He's a really interesting guy. And like I say,
parts of this are quite gory, but it's not gratuitous.
It's all there to explain what it is that he
does and how he pulls all of these clues together
to arrive at a final conclusion.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
We've interviewed him, I think after the Quick and the Dead, yes,
and I agree he just opens us or into this world.
But really none of us have any idea of the
reality of We can watch TV, you know, think we
understand what's going on, but we don't really, so I
very much appreciated that having a much clearer understanding.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
I agree, and like what I tell you, I will
never eat a green lipped muscle again without wondering what's
coming with.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
It, just saying right, okay, you'll have to read the
book to get to the bottom of that one. I
love it. The Final Diagnosis by Kendrick Temple Camp. And
the first book that we spoke about was The Spoiled
Heart by sun Jeev Sahota. Thank you so much, John.
We'll see next week.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.