One of the UK’s most prolific cold-case forensic investigators, Peter Faulding is a forensic expert whose lifework includes things most regular people would happily steer clear of. Things like recovering dead human bodies, finding discarded remains, identifying unmarked graves and saving people from locations and situations that may be too dangerous for normal emergency services. ‘In this gripping and remarkable memoir, Faulding tells his extraordinary life story in fascinating detail, from iconic protest sites to the scenes of some of the UK’s most notorious crimes, describing how he has developed into a skilled search specialist, whose job is to assist investigators and police as they search crime scenes and bring serial killers to justice,’ says the publisher’s note, about What Lies Beneath: My Life as a Forensic Search and Rescue Expert. ‘Get ready to join Britain’s most extraordinary forensic search expert on his journey through deadly booby-trapped tunnel systems and into dark waters that hold horrific secrets, then onwards through uninviting crime scenes and into the minds of killers,’ it adds. A promising premise if ever there was one, right? So, let’s see what the book is all about.
In the prologue to the book, Faulding sets the tone for what’s to come. ‘I find things,’ he says. ‘And by the time I’m called, things have generally gone south for someone. I’m rarely asked to look for the living. I’m looking for the dead, of for the clues that will tell the authorities how they met their end. My ability to find things comes from experience and a curious mind. After so many years and so many searches, my ability to locate people and things is almost instinctive,’ he says. The seeds for this were, perhaps, sown in his childhood; he had an ‘idyllic’ family life as the only child of his parents, both of whom were adventurous, loved the outdoors and passed on these traits to their son. ‘Parents would let their kids roam and explore without panicking,’ says Faulding and adds that he had ‘an unstoppable adventurous streak’ in him. And hence, there was much playing with guns, bonfire nights with homemade fireworks, exploring old, abandoned mining caves with his father, getting into potentially serious trouble and, perhaps most importantly, learning to get out of those situations.
‘I left school with only a vague idea of what I wanted to do and a strong idea of what I didn’t,’ says Faulding, adding that a nine-to-five office job was definitely not on his mind. With a long-held interest in the emergency services, especially fire and rescue, Faulding says he was drawn to the idea of saving people, of being the rescuer. And sure enough, he gets his first opportunity when the local Fire Brigade’s special rescue unit asks him to help them with finding a group of scouts who had gone missing in some underground mining tunnels. In the face of difficult odds, Faulding is able to locate the missing scouts, setting the scene for his future work. But first, he joins a volunteer battalion in the Parachute Regiment, where he’s made to toughen up mentally and physically, and where he picks up some key skills: handling an assortment of weapons, surviving in difficult conditions and learning to hold his own in unarmed, hand-to-hand combat. While his weekdays are relatively humdrum, Faulding gets to live out his action-man fantasies on the weekends thanks to his engagement with the Parachute Regiment, and later goes on to work with local emergency response outfits, further honing and perfecting his specialist skills.
Gradually, but inevitably, word gets around and Faulding starts getting work from local rescue and emergency response services, pitching in to help them find people who’re in trouble and get them out of various difficult situations – everything from people trying to take their own lives, people trapped in vehicles after having an accident, dealing with protestors while undertaking complex rescue operations and generally dealing with difficult, dangerous situations that were hard to handle even for official search-and-rescue services. And finally, in 1995, when Faulding is still in his early-30s, he sets up his very own rescue company – Specialist Rescue International – which is later renamed to Specialist Group International.
Once he gets going with his own company, the next few chapters in the book are all high-octane tales of Faulding in action – drama in real life, as he traipses around the country, getting in and out of life-threatening situations, somehow always getting out alive to live another day, save another human being, tell another story. ‘Locating and recovering drowning or murder victims is distressing, harrowing and traumatic work, but to be able to offer families and friends of those who are missing some closure is an important and valuable endeavour,’ he says. In addition to his incredible skills in search and rescue operations, Faulding also has a knack for writing, keeping it tight, taut, ratcheting up the tension with his spare prose even as he deals with an assortment of horrors with the equanimity of a professional. Some of it can occasionally be hard to stomach – brutal murders that depict the darkest sides of humanity, tragic accidents that could have been avoided with some care, and instances of plain bad luck – being in the wrong place at the wrong time – with lethal results. In all of this, what shines through is the author’s dogged determination to get to the bottom of things, reveal the full story and hopefully get some justice for the victim, all in circumstances where many other may have given up and gone home.
Reading about the many gory instances that Faulding dealt with over the years, one wonders what effect these might have had on his own psyche. After all, how may murders, decapitations, beatings, torture and other acts of wanton violence can one witness without being deeply affected by them? ‘Some jobs stay with you, no matter how much time passes. Something happens, some horror, some display of inhumanity, and the event gets branded on your mind forever, like a stain,’ he says. And there’s also the spectre of unresolved crime; despite people like Faulding and all their expertise, sometimes criminals do get away, crime does remain unpunished. ‘It would be great to be able to write how in every case I was called to, I managed to uncover a vital piece of evidence, or a body. But that’s not real life,’ says Faulding, adding that at times, leads go nowhere and that sometimes, victims are never found. Not that it stops him from continuing to look, to search for answers, to provide some closure.
What Lies Beneath is an engaging read – it keeps the reader hooked from the first page to the last. The real-life stories are fascinating and horrifying in equal measure, often making you shudder at the sheer unthinking, unfeeling brutality that human beings are capable of. And at the same time, one also feels grateful for the fact that there are people like Peter Faulding in this world, who’ll go to any lengths to uncover the truth and bring criminals to justice.
What Lies Beneath: My Life as a Forensic Search and Rescue Expert
Author: Peter Faulding
Publisher: Pan Macmillan India
Format: Hardcover / Paperback / Kindle
Number of pages: 304 / 304 /300
Price: Rs 1,670 / Rs 555 / Rs 485
Available on Amazon
Book Review: What Lies Beneath
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