Death of a Murderer (edition 2007)

A dreary little book with nothing to say. I do not understand where the rave reviews came from, unless readers are confusing boring and plodding with contemplative and profound. ( )

An unusual but compelling read. Rupert Thomson uses the death of Myra Hindley in 2002 as the background for this novel. Her death plays a part of the novel but the main focus is the narrator, PC Billy Tyler. Billy is a police officer and is asked to guard her body in a hospital mortuary in Suffolk. The narrative takes place over a twelve hour night shift and during this lonely time the reader is witness to Billy’s reflection on his life from childhood to modern times.

Aspects of it don’t flow as well as others, for me his relationship with childhood friend Raymond overshadowed an exceptional storyline yet it was a necessary part of the plot. He explores in detail his relationship with Sue his wife and we also witness an intimate and emotional analysis of his relationship with his daughter Emma. A little too much was made of previous relationships but as with Raymond they were necessary to give the reader some understanding of the choices Billy made in his life.

The novel is easy to read and will be interesting to those who have an understanding of this time in crime history. If all the texts this author writes are written as well as this, then it could be worth hunting them out. The only reason I’ve awarded this book 4 stars instead of 5 was simply because I tired of reading about Raymond. ( )

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=105 ( )

http://www.book-blog.com/2008/08/thomson-rupert.html ( )