Iceland’s only forensic pathologist is teaching crime writers about death | CBC Radio

When an Icelandic author needs help getting their crime-thriller just right, there is one man they turn to: Pétur Guðmannsson, the country’s only full-time forensic pathologist.

After responding to individual queries for years, Guðmannsson launched a course about three years ago to educate all those aspiring authors. 

“It’s a really interesting job and I think it’s fun to interact with writers and creators of fiction about the reality of my work,” Guðmannsson told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

As a forensic pathologist, Guðmannsson performs autopsies on bodies when a death is deemed to be unexpected, sudden or suspicious.

It’s cases like those that he talks about during his seminars on death and dying through Endurmenntun Háskóla Íslands, an education centre operated by the University of Iceland. Guðmannsson says it’s basically forensic pathology 101. He talks about traumatology — which is the study, diagnosis, and treatment of physical injuries — as well as the process of dying and what happens to a body after the person dies.

The course description promises to answer questions such as how medical examiners estimate time of death, how corpses rot and if nails grow after death.

He also tackles what it’s like to work with police during an investigation.

“The questions I get from the authors, they don’t strike me as strange because … strangely enough, they aren’t so different from questions that you might, for example, get during a trial from the defence,” said Guðmannsson.

“I quite enjoy the strangeness sometimes in the questions because you can always answer to some degree. And, of course, sometimes you don’t know the answer.”

Better understanding death

Icelandic writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir took Guðmannsson’s course while she was working on her series of novels, An Arora Investigation.

“I needed info on how a body would look after three years in an airtight suitcase. Basic crime writer stuff,” said Sigurðardóttir. 

She says it gave her a deeper understanding of death.

“I also found Pétur’s approach to death strangely poetic and beautiful,” she said. “He speaks of the dead with respect and sympathy, and is never disgusted by the human body, even when it is in a bad state.”

Despite offering multiple seminars, which occasionally sell out, Guðmannsson says the queries haven’t stopped. In fact, he says he may get even more emails than before. But he doesn’t mind. 

He also says some writers still get the science wildly wrong — but, for him, that’s part of the fun. 

“It doesn’t bother me, really. I think authors, they have the right to make up stupid things and silly things and to be creative,” said Guðmannsson.

“Sometimes made up science is much more attractive than the real science, much more juicy.”

Why the fascination?

Guðmannsson, who’s been in the field for over a decade, believes one of the reasons there is so much interest in stories about murder and crime might be because of how infrequently they occur in real life in Iceland. 

Iceland is considered a safe place to live, with one of the lowest homicide rates worldwide. Guðmannsson estimated he deals with about two to four murders each year.

And with a population of around 387,000 people, according to Statistics Iceland, when something happens in the country, people want to know. 

“If there is a homicide in Iceland, it will make headlines in every media for days,” said Guðmannsson.

“The whole country, they get themselves involved in other people’s businesses and other people’s tragedies.”

And with that fascination not going away anytime soon, Guðmannsson doesn’t expect the questions to stop either. But there is one query he won’t answer. 

“A classical question that usually comes up during the course is, ‘What is the best way to get away with murder?'” said Guðmannsson.

“For ethical, professional reasons, I usually try not to answer that.”