LISTEN: State pathologist Marie Cassidy swaps scalpel for suspense with new bestseller

After more than 30 years in forensic medicine and 15 years as Ireland’s State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy has reinvented herself as a bestselling author, turning the meticulous work of post mortems into gripping crime fiction. Her second novel "Deadly Evidence" is out now and on the "Natter with Kate and Michelle" podcast she speaks candidly about sleepless cases, the Ana Kriégel investigation that prompted her retirement and the duty she still feels to bereaved families.

The former Irish State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy has been a storyteller throughout her career, piecing together the stories of the people who ended up on the table in front of her, but it is only since she retired that she began to put pen to paper, and started writing crime fiction.

“Writing was something I’d never even thought about doing, although I’ve spent my life writing post-mortem reports… when I was asked if I wanted to have a go at writing, I thought, well, I’ll have a go because I’m now into what I’m calling my nonsense phase of life. So it’s been very serious and I’ve had to have this kind of serious persona because of what I was dealing with, but now I can just put that behind me, not completely, but mostly I can put it behind me.”

Dr. Cassidy was chatting with writers Kate Durrant and Michelle McDonagh on their chart-topping Irish books podcast "Natter with Kate and Michelle", produced in association with Bookstation, Ireland’s fastest growing and best value bookseller, and IrishCentral.

During her 15-year career as State Pathologist of Ireland, Marie Cassidy became known to the Irish public as a trusted figure whose expertise helped to solve murders and clarify unexplained deaths. In over 30 years of practice, she performed thousands of post-mortems and dealt with hundreds of murders. She retired at the end of 2018 to spend more time on the other passions in her life, her family and writing. 

Her memoir, "Beyond the Tape", hit the number one spot when it came out in 2020 and has been translated into several languages since. Her debut crime novel, "Body of Truth", was one of the top 10 highest selling novels in Ireland in 2023. Her second book, "Deadly Evidence", another gripping page-turner, is out now.

Dr Cassidy speaks openly and honestly about the cases that cost her sleepless nights over the years and the duty she owes the deceased and their families to make sure she "gets it right".

“When you’re dealing with a death, it’s always in your mind constantly because you want to make sure you get it right. Because at the end of the day, there’s a possibility that we could get the case into court and get some, and I hate this word closure, but it is closure in a way for families. And so the time we get to that stage, I’ve covered every possible avenue, I’ve had things checked and double checked and triple checked to make sure that I can verify everything I’m going to say and stand over it. But the ones that do cost me, not so much sleep, but that still niggle, are the ones where we don’t get that far, where we don’t have all the evidence, or they (the State) decide that they don’t have enough evidence to prosecute."

Dr Cassidy says she still gets calls and emails from the families and loved ones of people who died maybe 20 or 30 years ago and are still looking for answers.

“I mean, imagine spending your whole life wondering and trying to make some sense out of something that doesn’t really make any sense at all. So those are the ones I always worry about, the ones that got away if you like. Once all the facts are out there, once people have heard what happened or a version of events of what happened, at least it gives them something. They can sometimes get their head round about it, but… when you don’t get that far, you don’t get into court, you don’t hear any evidence, it’s just so destroying for these people and it’s just awful. And for me as well… it’s a huge burden because you always think, have I let people down by not doing it? But it’s out of my hands. I’m only a part, a small part of the death investigation jigsaw.”

Dr Cassidy points out that her job was to try and piece together what happened to people in the last few minutes of their lives just before that fatal event, that very small parameter. It doesn’t matter to her where they went to school, who their pals were or what they were doing that night. It’s what happened in those few minutes leading up to their death that becomes vital.

It was the devastating case of Ana Kriégel, a 14-year-old girl murdered in Dublin by two 13-year-old boys known to her that led to Dr Cassidy’s decision to retire from pathology. When asked what was it about that case that broke the camel’s back for her, she explains: “I’d been aware for some time before that case that there was a kind of a change in society, the kind of deaths I was seeing were becoming more brutal, more violent. The age ranges were getting younger and younger….And it was because for the first time ever I had said, why did they do it? Because why doesn't matter to me? That’s not my remit. I’m there to say what the cause of death is. So it doesn't matter to me who did it, why they did it and what they thought they were going to get out of it. That’s got nothing to do with me at all. I mean, I stood in that scene and I went, why?…..And once you do that, then you’re not unbiased, you’re not independent because you’re beginning to get involved in the crime itself. And that’s not what I’m there to do.”

Listen here to "Natter with Kate and Michelle's" discussion with Marie Cassidy here:

"Deadly Evidence" by Marie Cassidy is published by Hachette Ireland and available in paperback, ebook and audiobook. You can purchase it at Bookstation.ie here.

Listen to Marie’s interview on "Natter with Kate and Michelle" now at Acast or on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to follow "Natter" on Instagram @natterwithkateandmichelle or Facebook.