Harold Shipman by Carole Peters, 0233001735, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Do you expect your GP to be the person who's coming to kill you ?

I am always interested in true crime books particularly British ones as they can seem more real and prosaic than big US crimes . I had not particularly read anything on him before but remember the trial and the fuss at the time.

I am always in interested in the method of detection and why it was not found earlier and also the motives or justifications of the killer. I always believe there are plenty of people who have suspicions of these crimes but do not come forward until after the case is discovered.

In Shipman's case as a doctor he used this as a front to keep people at bay. Interesting in our " don't believe anyone" culture that in modern times he could get away with it. People like to claim that they are sceptical and enquiring hut they are not when someone like a doctor comes along and gives an explanation. The patients were easy to manipulate as were the relatives other doctors and the authorities in general.

He was caught because he moved out of his area of expertise which was to forge a will.Forging wills are very easy indeed but he was too arrogant to take advice on that one or do any research. He also made the mistake of picking on someone who knew about wills that is patient's daughter was a solicitor.

Interestingly he had been investigated before but got away with it. It took a patient's daughter to spot the will and start the enquiry which became his downfall.

As a cynic and reader of true crime it appears the main way the police detect a crime or get a conviction is 1 if there is a confession 2 someone else tells them about it. Television programmes have you believing that the police catch people after thorough detective work and forensic evidence. If that were the case they would have caught Harold Shipman a lot earlier and also the Yorkshire Ripper.

Shipman was so arrogant that he thought he would get away at the first interview.He was a psychopath in that he had no capacity for remorse, guilty conscience or empathy. I know plenty of people like that but they are not serial killers as far as I am aware.

As the author has quoted If you look at the boardrooms of some of our more successful companies, you see exactly those combinations present.

Again he thought he was a computer expert and when the police accessed his computer they realised that he had altered the records much later to explain away the death. They could tell by reading the code . He was answering questions at this time but did not realise they were preparing a trap.

A simple understanding of police questions or cross examination would have made him realise that they were preparing a trap. They got him to admit that only he had access to the computer records and they got him to admit that only he could above written the records.

Had left that vague or not answered they would have been stuck. He could have said that everyone had access to the records and someone else altered it. That would ave given them a lot greater difficulty in trapping him.

He gave them a gift by admitting he had altered all the records. also he used a drug that remained in the system after death. They therefor did not need his evidence or a confession because he had given them all the evidence they needed once they knew what they were looking for.

If was because of two occasions he moved out of his area of expertise which was wills and computers. The moral of the story is take advice do not try to be too clever.

Much is made in the book of other people who had suspicions such as the taxi driver who made a list of all his clients who had died but none of these people did anything about it or were not listened to. Therefore my theory that there plenty of people around who have suspicions when a crime takes place but do nothing about it. It is never the complete surprise that the media have you believe.

There is some attempt to give reasons why he became a serial killer such as the death of his mother when he was s teenager and his feeling that he was an undiscovered genius but surely that applies to a lot of people. He was described as arrogant and self regarding narcissist, overwhelmed by by self regard who genuinely cannot understand why other people don't feel the same about him. Who isn't?

Once he was in the court system he could not use his usual tactics of bamboozling people with his supposed superior knowledge. The system works so that you can only answer the questions you are asked and you are not allowed to make speeches. He was just a bit part player.

They mention briefly the case of Dr Bodkin Adams in Eastbourne but he was never convicted of killing his patients as he described it as easing the passing an although that he was the recipient of large bequest in wills from grateful patients he never actually forged the wills.

Interestingly his perfect doctor routine did not always work with the practice staff as he regarded them as inferior also some relatives said he would become arrogant and unhelpful after a death. I have always claimed that people who become angry or difficult are either not competent at their jobs or are hiding something usually both. similarly with uncommunicative pope. If they say very little it is because they hold unpalatable view that they do not want everyone else to know.

This certainly all applied to Dr Shipman

His doctor colleagues and partners reassessed their views and tried to think after the event if they could have spotted what he was up to but they justified themselves saying that they could not have done so. They were co signing death certificates without doing any research taking a good fee for it.

Even though the book had copyright 2005 & 2006 it does not mention the death of Shipman by suicide in 2004. I had to look that up on Wikipaedia.He never confessed so never gave the families the satisfaction of knowing why he did it.

The book is good on covering every death but it becomes too much as the facts are always so similar. The forging of the will is well covered and there is a copy of the will in the book. Interviews with those who had suspicions is well covered. The speculation as to why he did it and his personality are less well done as they could relate to a lot of people you have met or know.

As a previous reviewer has s aid a good intro to the subject but I will be looking at other books on Shipman.

A good read and highly recommended if you are a true crime fan

Decent enough - but no the best on Shipman

I was hoping that this book and the accompanying documentary would reveal something new about Shipman and his crimes, specifically his motivations. It was a good read and synopsis of this horrific case without ever being groundbreaking. The book was written before the Public Enquiry published its full report, including the Pontefract years of Shipman's career, so this era - the least explored and potenially crucial time in his development - is touched on but not very revealing.

The sections about Shipman's own drug abuse are interesting and some of the better work on this side of his personality that I have read. The author also has made contact with some really excellent sources. For the first time his prison letters are explored, which mainly reveal the true arrogance and cold-heartedness of the man rather than any crucial information about his crimes. Doctors Shipman worked with, relavtives of victims, friends of Shipman are all interviewed here and so you get an excellent range of opinions on his crimes and why he was not caught sooner.

The book is also admirable in that the author makes a point of mentioning every known victim by name. Too many crime writers forget about the most important people in these horrific cases - the victims - and this is one book where that is certainly not the case. The author has also consulted a wide range of extremely well thought of forensic psychologists, and thus the book contains an interesting overview of Shipman's development as a killer, perhaps as close to the truth as we will ever get.

There were a couple of factors that let the book down for me. The proof reading is awful and so the book is almost littered with spelling and grammatical mistakes which did grate on me at times when reading. Also, the book skipped over some sections, such as the trial, a bit too quickly and I would have liked a more thorough examinations. However, to be fair, Shipman's crimes were huge and so to cover all ground thoroughly in one book is hard. Overall though this is a good read, perhaps best as an introduction tot eh case followed by reading of other more in depth books.

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