Cold as Marble: A Likeness in Stone

A Likeness in Stone by J.Wallis Martin

New English Library

Pp. 361

In the powerful opening scene of the novel, two divers exploring an old flooded house at the bottom of a reservoir find a decomposed body in a wardrobe. We soon discover it is that of Helena Warner, an undergraduate reading English at Somerville College, Oxford, who went missing twenty years ago. At the time, Thames Valley Chief Inspector Bill Driver, was convinced that she had been killed by her lover, Ian Gilmore, but with no body, the case was never solved. Now it is re-opened by the new policeman on the job, Detective Superintendent Rigby, who works with Driver to try to bring Gilmore to justice. It may be set in the same cosy world as Morse and Midsommer Murders (and it was made into a miniseries starring Andrew Lincoln and Ruth Jones) but it is far more grim than that, because, “horror wasn’t choosy. It manifested in the most unlikely of places, and in various guises.”

Of course, this is a mystery, so nothing is as it initially appears, and submerged secrets rise to the surface, as the timeline shifts back and forth. Helena was part of a group of friends who don’t actually like each other very much and still have affiliations and implications many years later. These three university associates are all implicated in a very dark world which includes sadism and psychopaths.

Rigby and Driver must work together to solve the case despite their different methods. Driver looks down upon Rigby whom he dismisses as, “Well-dressed, intelligent-looking; no doubt the product of one of these new-fangled schemes that sends graduates shooting up a ladder Driver had to climb rung by painful rung, year after frustrating year.”

Women are victims; objects to be possessed and preserved in youth before they age and supposedly lose their beauty. Other examples of casual sexism and lazy stereotypes are scattered throughout the novel. Artists are troubled and odd; mental health facilities are a comfortable alternative to a hard life; computers are new (it was published in 1997) and, apparently, the police one is female, “What’s more, this little sweetie was a redhead. One false move and she could go off on one, no trouble.”

This gripping and clinical, fast-paced police procedural has been likened to the work of Ruth Rendell or Minette Walters. It is certainly dark and moody with a chilling aspect. “Real evil, unlike the romanticised fantasy of evil, was merely gloomy, monotonous and boring… The majority of murders were committed not with malice, but with indifference, by people who lived in the type of environment that deadened the soul.” It is eerie, creepy, and a thoroughly captivating thriller.

There's Method in It: The Psychopath Test

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson 

Riverhead Books

Pp. 272

We have a lot of examples in popular culture of what it looks like to be ‘mad’. The mental health industry has become increasingly prevalent and topical. Journalist Jon Ronson explored this phenomenon through a series of interviews and other research methods to publish this highly accessible study in 2011. While many people now self-diagnose, due to the availability of tests and checklists, others exhibit psychopathic behaviour almost undetected, and often end up running companies or countries.

He begins with the premise that it can be harder to persuade people you are ‘sane’ than it is to convince them you are ‘mad’. Ronson is allowed access to one of the most notorious psychopaths, incarcerated in Broadmoor Clinical Lunatic Asylum, Tony, who is allowed to read his own medical files and pass them on to Ronson. Tony claims that he faked madness and now no one believes he is sane when he tries to deny it. “Tony said faking madness was the easy part, especially when you’re seventeen and you take drugs and watch a lot of scary movies. You don’t need to know how authentically crazy people behave. You just plagiarize the character Dennis Hopper played in the movie Blue Velvet.”

Often psychopaths can present as totally charming, which makes it difficult to detect. Ronson says, “The moment I’d first seen Tony, he had strolled purposefully across the Broadmoor Wellness Centre in a pin-striped suit, like someone from The Apprentice, his arm outstretched.” (That particular TV reference is unintentionally relevant). Dressing smartly and being personable (“Glibness/ Superficial Charm”) is the first indication on the most available test; the twenty-point Hare Checklist, devised by Canadian psychologist Bob Hare, “the gold standard for diagnosing psychopaths.” The checklist is included in the book , so that readers can take it for themselves. Find it here: http://www.clintools.com/victims/resources/assessment/personality/psychopathy_checklist.html

It is common to redefine the psychopathic traits on the checklist as Leadership Qualities and the crossover can be a very fine line. In examining ‘lack of remorse or guilt’ and ‘callous/ lack of empathy’, Ronson highlights CEO Al Dunlap, formerly of Sunbeam. It is evident that if this book had been published ten years later, Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos would have been prime case studies. Ronson wonders whether highly driven and successful people are actually insane, and if what makes psychopaths so scary – no fear, filter, no conscience – also makes them good executives. Hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks advise their clients which companies to invest in, and they rejoice in job cuts and applaud as research facilities, tech areas and training centres get destroyed. Psychopathic behaviour is on prominent display on Wall Street.

Mental health disorders are listed in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which lists mental disorders. It is used by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, the legal system and policymakers. Robert Spitzer, who worked on DSM-III explained that the idea was to list potential new mental disorders and a checklist of their overt characteristics. “It seemed a foolproof plan. He would eradicate from psychiatry all that crass sleuthing around the unconscious. There’d be no more silly polemicizing… Instead it would be like science. Any psychiatrist could pick up the manual they were creating – DSM-III – and if the patient’s overt symptoms tallied with the checklist, they’d get the diagnosis.”

DSM-III sold more than a million copies, mainly to civilians rather than professional psychiatrists. “All over the western world people began using the checklists to diagnose themselves. For many of them it was a godsend. Something was categorically wrong with them and finally their suffering had a name. It was truly a revolution in psychiatry, and a gold rush for drug companies, who suddenly had hundreds of new disorders they could invent medications for, millions of new patients they could treat.” As one psychiatrist Ronson interviewed confirmed, “A surfeit of checklists, coupled with unscrupulous drug reps is a dreadful combination.”

Ronson can’t help but test himself and starts to worry that, as a journalist, he might meet some of the criteria. One of his interview subjects tells him, “Finding patterns is how intelligence works. It’s how research works. It’s how journalism works. The search for patterns.” He also considers that in the very act of researching and writing this book, he might be contributing to the way that madness is packaged and presented for entertainment. “I was writing a book about the madness industry and only just realizing that I was a part of the industry.” He probably doesn’t think about the paradox too deeply. After all, that way madness lies.