David James Smith (1) (1956–)

In February 1993, 2 year old James Bulger disappeared from a shopping mall in Liverpool, England. A day or so later, his mutilated body was found on some nearby railroad tracks, clearly the victim of a brutal murder. Using camera footage and some quick detective work, the murderers were found - two 10 year old boys from the community, an unbelievably young age for something so brutal. And this case became a lightning rod for discussion of how to treat children who commit horrific crimes when generally we don't consider children to be mature enough to understand the magnitude of what they've done.

Smith's The Sleep of Reason is a hard retelling of the crime and subsequent trial - almost brutal itself in the telling. He's not trying to answer the question, for instance, of why the boys did what they did or how the circumstances of their background, including significant abuse, contributed to their actions. Instead, he presents the facts as best they can be reconstructed and lets the reader come to conclusions. Bookending the story is a little bit of the history of murder committed by children in Britain and how society responded, and some thoughts on how he interprets the crime. This one will make you think: how do we treat these children? How do we try to keep this from happening? What is society's response as these children grow up - can they become more than just child murderers?… (more)

I was really fascinated with this book. Smith walks you through that horrible day step by step, every place and person the boys encountered, all the way to the horrific end at the railroad tracks. The police interviews and court case were well documented. You never do get a definitive answer to why they did what they did to poor James. Some parts of the book got a little confusing but overall the book was well written. I would be very interested in hearing what Robert Thompson and Jon Venables had to say now that they are adults.… (more)