Scottish morgue to be named after crime author

A number of bestselling crime authors are in the running to have a new morgue at Dundee University named after them.

It will be located in the university's new Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID), though GBP 2 million needs to be raised for the construction of the facility, only GBP 1 million of which has been contributed by the university itself.

In order to generate the remaining funds, the university has come up with the novel idea of allowing members of the public to vote for their favourite crime author online – donating one pound with each vote – with the most popular writer having the morgue named after them.

Authors who have put themselves forward for the honour include crime fiction giants Peter James, Tess Gerritsen, Lee Child and Val McDermid, who often consults experts at the university when writing new novels.

CAHID director Professor Sue Black said the group of authors, which also includes Harlan Coben, Mark Billingham and Jeffrey Deaver, is 'amazing'.

'To receive such enthusiastic support from Val and her fellow writers is tremendously gratifying and I cannot thank them enough for lending their support to this project,' she added.

When completed, the morgue will adopt a 'revolutionary' means of embalming bodies, known as the Thiel method, which gives experts a more effective way of testing new techniques and procedures.