As a young police press officer in South London during the 1970’s I was often required to attend postmortem examinations of murder victims. During that period I became very familiar with several of the Home Office pathologists who turned up regularly to carry out their gruesome task. One of the younger doctors on the circuit was Professor Iain West of Guy’s Hospital’s Department of Forensic Medicine. Iain was a dour Scot, professional, focussed and detached when he was working but witty and charming when off duty. He was enormously popular with the detectives whom he advised and much admired by judges, barristers, and jurors alike for the clarity of the evidence he presented in court when called upon to do so. It quickly became apparent that Iain was perhaps the most talented forensic pathologist of his generation and as his fame spread he was invited to take on the highest profile and most complicated cases both in Britain and abroad.
In 1994, I was approached by a literary agent who had been asked by the publishers Little Brown to find an author who knew West and could persuade him to co-operate with a book about his work.
I talked to Iain and he readily agreed to work with me. After an initial discussion in which we identified forty of his most interesting cases I began the research. I was allowed to examine every one of his case files, make notes, and then sit down with him and flesh the story out by asking the kind of questions a layman might ask while trying to tease out appropriate anecdotes which might bring the cases to life. Progress was slow because of West’s heavy work schedule but I completed the 120,000 words in time to deliver the finished manuscript just inside the publishers’ deadline.
Then we hit a snag.
Iain had read the book as we went along but, being the precise and almost pedantic scientist that he was, he now insisted on re-reading it line-by-line and making extensive amendments. This process was slow and laborious because, once again, it had to be fitted around his busy working life. It was also prolonged by the fact that I had to defend the creative side of the writing by arguing against the use of too much dry, colourless, scientific language. The book had to be a good and accessible read for the ordinary man or woman in the street. Iain and I had many a robust debate over this aspect and I was the loser more often than not. As a result of these delays we lost out on the opportunity to have the book serialised in a national newspaper but eventually it was published, to critical acclaim, in 1996. Two hardback and two paperback editions followed and the book continued to sell well around the world for many years. It was even translated into Japanese and is still available through several international book outlets.
Sadly Iain West died in 2001 at the age of 57.

The cover blurb for my book Dr Iain West’s Casebook reads: “A comprehensive and fascinating record of some of the most famous and controversial cases of his illustrious career, this book reflects the status that forensic pathology now commands in the field of criminal investigation. With detailed reference to acts of international terrorism, war crimes, major disasters, serial murder and domestic violence, crime journalist Chester Stern explores how Dr West helps police and juries understand the full horror of such incidents, how fresh interpretations of existing evidence increasingly support damages claims by victim's relatives, and how, in the strange circumstances of Robert Maxwell's apparent drowning, he uncovered crucial clues which put a whole new complexion on the mystery of the tycoon's death. Probing death in many bizarre forms, this is a compelling, chilling but never lurid insight into the work of a man for whom death is a way of life”.