The Butcher of Belle Vue’ has struck again. Like the others, the third victim has been partially skinned and dumped on waste ground, her muscles, tendons and ligaments exposed to view. Only this time her face has also been removed. Whoever the killer is, it appears he has a good knowledge of surgery.
Jon Spicer and his new partner, Rick Saville, are on the investigating team. The case is waiting for its first breakthrough, and it seems to come when Jon finds a blood spattered latex glove in the vicinity of the third victim. When it’s discovered the sales rep for the glove manufacturer has been reported as missing only that morning, it appears the case could be close to being cracked.
Then a woman approaches Jon insisting that she heard ‘The Butcher’ claiming his third victim in the next room of a run down motel in Belle Vue. But all she has to back up her story is a business card she recovered from the empty room the next morning. It is from a local escort agency and the name ‘Alexia’ has been scrawled on the back.
Jon’s investigation takes him into the twilight world of Manchester’s escort agencies and the unscrupulous cosmetic surgery industry – ultimately forcing him to confront the propensity for violence that is in every man, even himself.
Beauty, it’s said, is only skin deep. Yet surely physical perfection has never been more eagerly sought than today.
Look at TV programmes like ‘Extreme Makeover’ or ‘Ten Years Younger’. Look at the endless list of celebrities who’ve had ‘work done’. Look at the ads in the back of any women’s (or men’s) magazine. Look at one of the most common reasons why women take out a personal loan: cosmetic surgery.
You can draw many conclusions from the west’s ever-growing need for such procedures. Practitioners in the industry will claim it’s just a harmless step on from applying make-up. Others see it as an unhealthy symptom of a modern day obsession with outer appearances. I saw it as a great opportunity to delve into the risky and costly business of changing how you look by means of the knife.
Of course, buildings, neighbourhoods and – in the case of Manchester – entire cities can undergo facelifts too. Since the IRA bomb of 96 and the Commonwealth Games of 02, large parts of Manchester have been transformed beyond all recognition.
But despite attempts to reinvent itself, many areas on the edge of the city’s gleaming new centre are as dilapidated as ever. The dirty old town captured by Lowry in his paintings – mills, warehouses, factories – now lie derelict, abandoned and rotting. It makes a great backdrop for a story about people who hide dark and violent urges behind veneers of respectability.