by RupertThomson (Author)
Towards the end of November 2002, Billy Tyler, a police constable in his mid-forties, is summoned to the mortuary of a hospital in Suffolk. For the next twelve hours, from seven in the evening till seven in the morning, he is responsible for guarding the body of the notorious child-killer, Myra Hindley. In the face of public hostility and media frenzy, Billy's job, as his superior puts it, is to 'make sure nothing happens'. As a seasoned police officer, Billy's approach is utterly professional, but as the night wears on, in the eerie silence of the hospital, the dead woman's presence begins to assert itself, and Billy's own problems and anxieties - a stalled career, a fractious marriage, a disabled daughter - gradually acquire a new and unexpected significance. In this daring novel, Rupert Thomson takes on one of the most controversial subjects of our time and addresses the difficult questions that arise from it. Who do we love, and why? How do we protect our children? What separates us from the people we call monsters? A vivid evocation of an extraordinary moment in crime history, Death of a Murderer is one man's dark night of the soul, a gripping meditation on the fears and temptations that haunt the lives of all of us.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 02 Apr 2007
ISBN 10: 074758804X
ISBN 13: 9780747588047
Book Overview: As chilling as Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, as mesmeric as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood A taut, chilling novel that expertly explores the psychology of a man, a marriage and a murderer
Prizes: Shortlisted for Costa Novel Award 2007.