[3] As the David Hunter series is popular in Europe (especially in Germany), Beckett's novels have been published on the continent before his home country of the United Kingdom.

The Scent of Death (Die ewigen Toten) was published in February 2019 and went straight to the number one slot on Germany's book chart.

One of the people trying to save the hospital is a barrister who asks Hunter for too much information and is killed in a very suspicious hit-and-run which also wounds a fellow forensic officer on the case.

Besides all of this, Hunter has to contend with his girlfriend taking a 3-month job abroad and the spectre of Grace Strachan, a female killer from the second book, still causing him to be jittery as she could be back to get him.

[6] Barry Forshaw, writing in the Financial Times, praised the book for its "avoidance of too much extraneous forensic detail," and described Beckett as being "back on form.