Joanne Drayton

I had not enjoyed Joanne Drayton's biography of Anne Perry so I approached her biography of Ngaio Marsh with some trepidation. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised! Perhaps because I am more familiar with Ms Marsh's detective fiction, or perhaps because Ms Marsh's life was understandably broader than Anne Perry's, this book is a more rounded look at a woman who led a full public life despite her rather private personality. There was probably a little too much rehashing of the plots of her show more novels but it didn't dominate the book the way it did in the Anne Perry book - and it was fascinating to see how much of Marsh's travels and friendships went into the background of her crime fiction. It was also fascinating to find out more about her life as an aspiring artist and successful theatre producer and to see how this life is a bridge between her 1930s heyday and current artists such as Sam Neil (who as a young actor had a small role in a play she produced) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (whose family she had long been friends with and who were the model for the charming and feckless Lampreys of her fiction). The book also gave some insight into the last generation of colonials who still regarded England as "home". An enjoyable read, particularly for those familiar with her work. show less

Finally...a book that gets inside the head of author Anne Perry in which Perry herself explains what was in her head when she, along with another teen girl, brutally beat that girl's mother to death with a stocking-enclosed piece of brick.

Because I've been wondering for years about Perry's rather strange decision to make her living as a murder mystery writer after having been convicted of committing one of the more horrible murders in the history of New Zealand, I had high hopes that "The show more Search for Anne Perry" would answer some of my questions and doubts about Perry. What I did not expect was to come away with much sympathy for Anne Perry - but even that happened.

Joanne Drayton managed to get the full cooperation of Anne Perry for this biography despite the fact that Drayton is from New Zealand and that the book would first be published there (the U.S. edition is new but was, I think, published in New Zealand in 2012). For that reason, "Search" is filled with Anne Perry quotes that help explain how such a terrible murder ever happened, how Perry survived five years in harsh prisons, how her Mormon faith allowed her to move on with the rest of her life, and why she believes today that she should be forgiven of her crime. Drayton offers her on analysis, too, often by quoting characters from Perry's books in which it seems that Perry is speaking through those characters.

My only complaint - and I did find it irritating - is that Drayton, in the process of quoting those characters often insists on going through much more plot detail than is necessary to make her points about Perry. She sometimes even includes spoilers (unnecessarily, in my opinion) that Anne Perry readers probably would rather not learn. But that's a minor quibble. This book ultimately delivered the goods for me, and for that reason, I am recommending it to others who might still be wondering about Anne Perry's murder conviction and how she kept her past hidden (even from her agents and publishers) for as long as she managed. show less

It wasn't until last year that I had any inkling about Anne Perry's past life. Then I read about it in a blurb for the Vancouver Writer's Fest and was intrigued that she not only wrote about murder but had actually been involved in one in the past. Until I read Drayton's book I was unaware that the news broke in 1994. I think that the most shocking thing for me was not that the author had helped to murder someone, but that I didn't find out until 2013.

Joanne Drayton has written a very show more readable biography in which she tells the story of the 1954 murder and aftermath and with the breaking of the story in 1994 and its aftermath. She shows how the ideas behind Perry's many novels come from her knowledge of the realities of the social upheaval caused by her actions. Drayton skillfully interweaves Perry's novel plots throughout the book to prove her points and to show the philosophical depths that are revealed through Perry's novels.

I have read quite a few of Anne Perry's novels in the past and, after reading Drayton's book I definitely have the desire to read more of Perry's novels, especially some of those I hadn't heard of before. With the next Perry book that I read I will have an eye out for the intellectual and philosophical points that Perry is trying to convey. show less

An sympathetic treatment of the life story of the mystery author Anne Perry who was famously revealed to be Juliet Hulme, one of the teenage murderers whose story was told in the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures. Anne's life challenges to look at how we treat someone who has committed a horrendous crime but who spends their subsequent life in expiation and attempting to be "good". A little too much description of the books, however I see how this is used to emphasise the themes of show more redemption and expiation. An interesting read.

Made me think of this exchange from Dorothy Sayer's Gaudy Night:

Miss Burrows : Excuse my saying so, Miss Vane, but given your own terrible experience, I wonder that you should still decide to write the sort of books you do.

Harriet Vane : You're saying that anyone with proper feelings would rather scrub floors for a living? Well, I should scrub floors very badly, and I write mysteries rather well. show less