Death of a Murderer

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 willing 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.

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 show more 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. show less

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

It is difficult to know what to expect from this book - my cover is a half-shot of the famous Myra Hindley picture, and the quotes on the blurb talk about "a chiller to read with the lights on" and "an extraordinary moment in crime history".
I did not think it was either of those things, more the story of a policeman's life and the difficulties he faces now in staying married when the first spark has gone and in bringing up a child who needs a lot of support and attention.
For me, this was a book which struggled to find a voice - Billy the policeman was the common thread but it was too fragmented and unfocussed for me.
I am in the minority here though - it is easy to read so worth a try - you may feel differently.

A police constable assigned to morgue duty to watch over the body of a woman who was convicted of torture and murder of children spends the night contemplating his lost youth, lost love, crumbling marriage, his daughter with Down's Syndrome, his own transgressions: in short, he re-lives most of his life.

This is one of those British novels where there is no story involved; rather, the novel uses its 'a day in the life of' scenario to throw open the most intimate moments and thoughts of the protagonist without any real beginning or end to the story. There is no plot here, and not really worth reading.

4.5