Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham

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It’s summertime, which for some reason is the best time to read true crime. Look, it just is, you’re gonna have to trust me on this.

This true crime book is excellent. First of all, the story is compelling.
Secondly, this book is the perfect length, and the chapters are short enough that if you just want to read for a little while you’re not going to get bogged down in a long chapter.

Lastly, The writing is crisp and to the point. Mr. Graham deftly writes about the Hulme/Parker murder case where two fifteen year-old girls commit matricide. And if that doesn’t sound odd enough, the author includes many sections of Pauline Parker’s insane journal entries. It makes for some truly bazoo reading. It’s a page-turner, I promise, this book had me yelling, “WHAT?” about every three pages.

This is a pretty famous murder, made famous by Peter Jackson’s movie version, Heavenly Creatures,  and by the fact that Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers, grows up to be the famous murder/mystery author, Anne Perry.

“WHAT?”

I know!

The author sucks you in right away with the murder. Then he goes back and introduces the girls. And usually the bio part of true crime book are boring and dry, but Mr. Graham hits the high points and makes the biographies of the girls quick and interesting.

The hardest part of the book to read is, of course, the murder. It is brutal. The court parts are a little heavy, especially with all of the psychoanalysis of the 1950s, but I promise this book just flies along.

There were two things that sort of made for some difficult reading and the first is that since the author is from New Zealand, sometimes there were words or phrases that I was unfamiliar with, but there’s nothing that  couldn’t be figured out within the context. The second thing that made parts difficult to understand was the fact that the girls had SO MANY NAMES. First they have their real names, and then they gave each other nicknames. THEN they have nicknames for others as well. PLUS, it turns out Pauline’s parents were never married so they give her her mother’s maiden name. Then when they get out of prison they change their names. So what can you do, the book is filled with names; can’t be helped.

I have been recommending this book to EVERYONE at work. It’s short, interesting, and tells a crazy story that will stick in your mind for weeks after you read it.

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