I have had this book for awhile but haven't been in the right mood to really get started on it.

Billy is a policeman given a duty guarding the body of Myra Hindley in a hospital morgue on the evening before her funeral. He spends his time dwelling on the state of his marriage, his relationship with his disabled daughter and the past events of his life. But soon he feels the presence of the woman he is guarding and is forced to be more than honest about his feelings and actions and the idea that he too may have been capable of commiting violent acts given the right (wrong?) circumstances in life.

This book says a lot but it also conceals a great deal. I don't think that Myra Hindley's name appears even once in this book, despite her picture on the cover. The lack of her name even made me wonder if the picture was her or not, although it appears to be the most famous picture of her. His daughter's disability is not descussed or named at first and he is very slow to reveal the details of his life, despite the book being focused upon them. And yet the book manages to cover some of the most shocking crimes in recent British history without once mentioning the names of victims or murderers, tells the story of more than one life without one unnecessary word and made me as the reader think about how easy it might be to become the person who commits a terrible act and how then I might view and justify myself if I crossed the line. It was a very unsettling book but one that I am very glad I finally settled down to read. Thompson manages to keep a spooky, unsettled atmosphere even through the most domestic and ordinary parts of the story. ( )

http://michael-hartford.com/blog/?p=1... ( )

http://www.book-blog.com/2008/08/thom... ( )

A detective is assigned to guard the body of England's most notorious child killer, a
woman who has died in prison.He has twelve long hours alone in a morgue at night to sit
and think about what people are capable of doing, and of how things in
his own life have played out. Original and subtley creepy. Highly recommended ( )

Prospective readers should not be fooled into thinking that Thomson's novel is about Myra Hindley. In fact, her name is never mentioned directly. Rather, it is set at the time of her death, and focusses on how the events of that weekend, and reminders of her dreadful crimes provoked the thought patterns of the fictional protagonist.

In the space of twelve hours PC Billy Tyler is lead to consider the nature versus nurture debate, and how choices we make in life define who we are. Where do we decide to draw the line between what we are willong to do, and what we are capable of?

This is a well crafted novel, and only very occasionally does the train-of-thought device lead to confusion.

A recommended read. ( )