# Book ID - develop old film, solve mystery **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 14, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-id-develop-old-film-solve-mystery/928029 "2020-12-14T15:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-id-develop-old-film-solve-mystery/928029/1 "2020-12-14T15:34:51Z")
This just popped into my head. I think I must have read it in the mid 1990s. I remember very little about it. I’m not even certain it was a novel, it could have been a short story. But I think it was probably a novel. I am British, and read the book in England. It was probably a British author, and set in England. The protagonist finds some old, used but undeveloped rolls of photographic film. She has them developed and what was on them led her to solve a mystery from years or decades past. (I _think_ the protagonist was female, but I’m not certain. Maybe written in the first person.) A minor twist at the end said that a forensic photographic expert told her that undeveloped film does not survive that long. After X years it is impossible to recover a picture. He couldn’t explain how it survived. This was left as a mystery for the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-id-develop-old-film-solve-mystery/928029/2 "2021-02-20T04:20:37Z")
Bumping. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-id-develop-old-film-solve-mystery/928029/3 "2021-02-20T12:22:12Z")
Probably NOT your book, but _Reflex_ by Dick Francis is a novel by a British Author, set in England, featuring someone who discovers some “undeveloped pictures” which then turn into . . . and it was first published in 1980. Philip Nore is a jockey and amateur photographer, and when another horsey photographer dies suddenly, he helps clean up after the funeral and discovers some secrets. But in this book, it’s not just rolls of undeveloped film, it’s stuff that requires some seriously weird and geeky specialized techniques to develop. Which Philip does, and finds himself with some serious blackmail potential information. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-id-develop-old-film-solve-mystery/928029/4 "2021-02-20T13:56:08Z")
Not the one, but thanks for the suggestion.