Not thrilling
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Unfortunately I didn't experience the chills or the thrills that some readers experienced. I agree that Death of a Murderer is vivid and unusual but it left me without any real feelings towards any of the characters. Not only did I find the plot mundane and painfully predictable, but to me areas were simply a rehash of the biography with glimpses of a plot around it. The lack of calling the murderer by name at initially seemed a poignant move but that was exactly the problem, you notice it straight a way. As the plot progresses the edition of the name just seemed a little immature and forced in places. No doubt some people will regard this a a phenomenal literary device but I found it completely unsubtle. It would have been great to only realise it upon reflection.
That said, I loved the concept of guarding the body of a child-killer and perhaps my expectations were too high. Having some experience of mortuaries, I was impressed how Thomson captured the atmosphere without falling back on the Hollywood cliche. If you are drawn to the book because of the 'notorious child-killer' then read 'The Lost Boy' by Duncan staff is far more chilling and involving. Anyway give it a go, you might get on with it.
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Just a bit too forced
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Rupert Thomson's novels have usually revolved around a cataclysmic external event happening to someone, generating before and after sections. Death of a Murderer departs from this model.
We find Billy Tyler, an unremarkable police constable who lacks much sense of ambition, guarding Myra Hindley's body at a hospital mortuary during a 12 hour night shift. To say that nothing happens is an understatement. It is just Billy, his notebook and his inner thoughts.
Billy has issues at home. He knows that he has been a disappointment to his wife Sue - he never took her travelling and now their daughter Emma, who has Down's Syndrome, means that he probably never will. His father in law is unsympathetic and he doesn't seem to have much in the way of friends. Phil, a colleague he took through induction, might have been a friend, but Billy now has to call him Sarge.
Obviously, there is some fascination with Myra Hindley - and unnamed and unseen presence. Billy starts to consider what it means to be evil, and this is pretty much the only topic of conversation in the brief interludes that Billy has someone to speak to. Billy is torn between the view that Hindley was inherently evil or that she was a normal person who did wicked things. This plays on in a dialogue between Billy and Hindley's ghost. This, though, didn't ring quite true. Hindley's ghost was portrayed as a cold, dispassionate person dealing with the issues in a very matter of fact fashion. However, in the newspapers Hindley had always seemed to be a complex contradiction between evasiveness and contrition. That her ghost would be neither felt wrong. It could be argued that Billy was playing out a monologue based on his own, imperfect, impression of Hindley and what makes a serial killer.
There were some elements of the backstory that also didn't quite ring true. It felt rather convenient that Billy had an episode to match his every thought. This gave it an air of that most hateful thing - a competency based interview.
Overall, we had quite a deep portrait of Billy himself, but perhaps the reader may wonder whether Billy was quite interesting enough to warrant it. Myra Hindley did enable some moral issues to be debated, but perhaps her principle role is simply to adorn the front cover to attract readers. Had Billy been sat on an observation detail all night outside a warehouse, he would probably still have had the time and space to consider his life and ponder the differences between right and wrong. This adds up to make an interesting novel: one which is readable but not especially gripping. It is brave in taking on morality as an issue, but the plot is just a bit too forced.
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lacks a gripping edge
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The book tells the story of a Police Officer who guards the body of a mass murderer, the officer is left with his own thoughts and imagination.
The book lacks a real gritty story, it is well written and captures peoples emotions but not much can happen to someone who is locked in a room with a few dead bodies.
There were parts that I thought the book was taking a twist only for the story to go back to the four walls of the mortuary.
A well written book that lacks a gripping edge.
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Complex, disturbing and thought provoking - well worth the price of admission
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Thompson's novels seem to have a slightly unreal feel to them: a sense characters don't quite talk to one another, a lack of connection, that things aren't quite as they should be. In this book, following the thoughts and reminiscences of a police officer as he guards the body of a famous murderess (the never named Mira Hindley), it works stunningly well. The crimes committed by the murderer stun one anyway - leave one feeling that their enormity is always slightly beyond you. The long late shift, sitting in a hospital morgue into the small hours, the conversations in hospital cafes, where strangers make connections they otherwise never would, even the feeling of disassociation between a couple married for many years, all seem to suit Thompson's style and vision perfectly.
The story examines how people were affected by Hindley and her and Brady's crimes. Generally, its interest is not with those directly affected by her - her victims, her family. Instead, it looks, through its microcosm of the central police officer, at the effect on people more generally. How do we react to those crimes? Did her childhood condition her to act as she did? Could a normal - otherwise loving - woman ever kill a child too? What might we do for love?
I agree with the previous reviewer that the story is, at points, rather too contrived. We can see the author pulling the strings rather too obviously. Generally, however, Thompson avoids this flaw. The relationship between the police constable, his wife and their daughter feels plausibly real. It anchors the story solidly and gives it its emotional heart. The result is a compelling novel.
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Unusual and thought-provoking
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I felt a strong theme throughout this book was 'fathers', and their strong influence on their children:
Billy's neglectful father, a past girlfriends abusive father, a neighbour whom Billy looks upon as a father figure, his wife's sneering and contemptuous father and his own roll as father to Emma who has Downs Syndrome. This is also bourne out in his 'conversation' with Hindley who doesn't want to talk about her moody and violent father and even the film he and Sue saw in Amsterdam was 'In The Name of The Father'.
He spends his shift guarding the notorious child killers body and his mind drifts to his relationships and experiences in life that have made him who is. I liked the concept and can't agree enough on how influential a father can be in their child's social and emotional development - this isn't an excuse for people who've had bad relationships with their fathers, to use to behave unacceptably. But does question whether rejection/abuse/neglect effects our relationships both growing up and throughout life.
The ending felt a bit of an anti climax, yet I can appreciate it's subtlety as Billy see's his role as Emma's daddy one that will over ride his previous experiences.
Overall an interesting book, and one worth reading, but not one I would rave about.
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