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DOUBT 3: The Madeleine McCann Mystery
DOUBT 3 is a grim reconnaissance of dirt and graveyards, a brutal interrogation of the gritty undercurrents of intention and motive. In its mission to find Madeleine, or some substantive evidence of her, the third narrative in this bestselling true crime series burrows down through obvious stratum into the subterranean, stinking caverns underlying this case. “If Madeleine is invisible then we must resume our search for her not in the visible but in the invisible world…” As such DOUBT 3 - The Paraiso Restaurante CCTV footage of May 3rd - Carol Tranmer’s Police Interview - Goncalo Amaral’s coffin theory - Possible dates remains were moved - Madeleine’s final resting place Through atoms and germs, odours and intuitions, sulphur and smoke, Van der Leek and Wilson attempt to find a thread, a few crumbs or a particle to piece together a long-forgotten form into someone we knew once upon a time. “Make no mistake, on the other side of all the nonsense, outside of time, some other version of events floats through the ether. That is what we want to get to. Not via a court room, that ship has sailed. Is the true story out of reach or are we up to the task of recognizing and grasping its threads?” The author suggests that besides Madeleine, something else – something that belongs to all of us – also vanished from the Algarve on that day in early May, 2007. The author navigates seaside sewers, recent interviews and long dead history in an effort to rescue the one, if not the other…
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2017
This is the third in a trilogy about the Madeleine McCann case. This particular book looks at events after Madeleine’s disappearance in depth and offers a counter to the official McCann narrative, which has been adopted by the mainstream media – rarely deviated from without the threat of legal action, backed up by the huge amount of money from the fund raised in her name.
It has to be said that the author is certainly not a fan of the McCann’s and this book takes for granted that the little girl met her death in, or around, the apartment where she was staying and her death covered up. Neither does the author accept that the fund has been used to look for Madeleine – his thought being that her parents know, all too well, where she is and have, therefore, stuck to a general theme of ‘hope’ that someone will come forward with the clue that finds her. Of course, as we do not know what actually happened, this may well be true. Although this is one view of what could of happened, it is only one theory.
These books have a somewhat flowery feel, with the ever present vision of a raven, over-seeing things. He tends to pull in research from other cases (and books he has previously written) and, also, somewhat bizarrely, from historical events. That said, when the book actually focuses on the case itself, it is very compelling.
The books were obviously written to tie in with the ten year anniversary, and much is made of events at this time and interviews with the McCann. The problem is, if you are looking for events to match your theory (as Patricia Cornwell does with her bizarre Ripper theories) you can make them work. So, for example, much is made that, on the anniversary, the church service in Portugal occurs at the time that Madeleine was supposedly abducted, while, in the UK, it happened earlier. However, he also mentions school children taking part in the UK service, which may have been why it started around seven (the Portugal service taking place after nine in the evening), or it may have simply been a start and finish to the various events. Likewise, taking what the McCann’s say in interviews, and twisting it, is pure conjecture.
Looking at the facts, there is much detail on cadaver odour (this is not for the squeamish), the possibility that the McCann children were drugged and that Madeleine fell while looking for her parents after waking (neither of the twins apparently woke, despite the chaos going on in the apartment, but they were not tested to see whether they had been sedated). The author also looks in detail at the way cadaver dogs found scent in the apartment and the car, and looks at the possibility of her body being moved. For example, the dogs targeted Madeleine’s ‘Cuddle Cat,’ despite Kate McCann, bizarrely, washing it twice. Would you really wash the toy your child loved and insist it was ‘dirty’ and ‘smelt,’ if it was all you had left of your child to cling to? That is emotive perhaps, but the way that the McCann’s, and their friends, all acted at the time was suspicious. Even if they were not responsible, they were obviously trying to cover up allegations of negligence and aware of how their behaviour looked.
This particular book has more conjecture than fact and is probably the least successful of the three in the trilogy. I would have preferred the author to be more open to different possibilities. Nobody actually knows what happened and this is a very tragic, still unresolved, case.
It has to be said that the author is certainly not a fan of the McCann’s and this book takes for granted that the little girl met her death in, or around, the apartment where she was staying and her death covered up. Neither does the author accept that the fund has been used to look for Madeleine – his thought being that her parents know, all too well, where she is and have, therefore, stuck to a general theme of ‘hope’ that someone will come forward with the clue that finds her. Of course, as we do not know what actually happened, this may well be true. Although this is one view of what could of happened, it is only one theory.
These books have a somewhat flowery feel, with the ever present vision of a raven, over-seeing things. He tends to pull in research from other cases (and books he has previously written) and, also, somewhat bizarrely, from historical events. That said, when the book actually focuses on the case itself, it is very compelling.
The books were obviously written to tie in with the ten year anniversary, and much is made of events at this time and interviews with the McCann. The problem is, if you are looking for events to match your theory (as Patricia Cornwell does with her bizarre Ripper theories) you can make them work. So, for example, much is made that, on the anniversary, the church service in Portugal occurs at the time that Madeleine was supposedly abducted, while, in the UK, it happened earlier. However, he also mentions school children taking part in the UK service, which may have been why it started around seven (the Portugal service taking place after nine in the evening), or it may have simply been a start and finish to the various events. Likewise, taking what the McCann’s say in interviews, and twisting it, is pure conjecture.
Looking at the facts, there is much detail on cadaver odour (this is not for the squeamish), the possibility that the McCann children were drugged and that Madeleine fell while looking for her parents after waking (neither of the twins apparently woke, despite the chaos going on in the apartment, but they were not tested to see whether they had been sedated). The author also looks in detail at the way cadaver dogs found scent in the apartment and the car, and looks at the possibility of her body being moved. For example, the dogs targeted Madeleine’s ‘Cuddle Cat,’ despite Kate McCann, bizarrely, washing it twice. Would you really wash the toy your child loved and insist it was ‘dirty’ and ‘smelt,’ if it was all you had left of your child to cling to? That is emotive perhaps, but the way that the McCann’s, and their friends, all acted at the time was suspicious. Even if they were not responsible, they were obviously trying to cover up allegations of negligence and aware of how their behaviour looked.
This particular book has more conjecture than fact and is probably the least successful of the three in the trilogy. I would have preferred the author to be more open to different possibilities. Nobody actually knows what happened and this is a very tragic, still unresolved, case.
June 17, 2019
Not a good wroter
I think the writer needs to develop a style of writing suited to fact as this one didn't work. After reading the 3 books two is best. 1 and 3 don't really have much new insight.
I think the writer needs to develop a style of writing suited to fact as this one didn't work. After reading the 3 books two is best. 1 and 3 don't really have much new insight.
March 19, 2022
More rubbish, full or repetitive quotes, more damn ravens and loads and loads of typos! I was correcting so much in my head it was like doing a damn proofread.
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