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So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme And The Murder That Shocked The World (2011)

by Peter Graham(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Awa Press

review 1: What makes this book fascinating is that murderers rarely go on to become best-selling novelists, such as Anne Perry. The account provided in this book details how two teenage girls, caught up in a kind of temporary madness, murdered one of their mothers; unfortunately, it can't quite answer the question "how did this happen?" any better than the clueless psychiatrists of the 1950's. What is equally baffling is how both girls, once separated, incarcerated, and eventually freed after a few years, went on to live, by all accounts, normal even highly productive lives. It seems like there ought to be answers to the questions their story raises, but there isn't, except that humans sometimes encourage the expression of evil in each other, either on purpose or inadvertently. By o... moreurselves, we might never harm another soul, but as a collision of warm and cold air can create a powerful storm, so the meeting of two girls can set off a chain of events leading to murder. Perhaps that explanation doesn't satisfy us, but it is the only one we are likely to get.
review 2: CAPTIVATING. "What was it anyway to extinguish the life of an unhappy women whose existence was displeasing to Gina? By what right did such a woman continue to live?"—page 149Q. What very prolific highly successful murder-mystery writer, with more than fifty novels to her credit, also happens to have been, as a teenager, convicted of premeditated murder? Stranger than fiction?Perhaps a tad slow and confusing at times, this true-crime story, ANNE PERRY AND THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY, by Peter Graham, is mind-blowing. It might just have me shaking my head and talking to myself about it for the next few weeks.How did I ever miss this story? And the 1994 Kate Winslet movie, 'Heavenly Creatures,' based on the same actual events? (Good news: the movie is available on Amazon Instant Video.)Recommendation: Read the book. Watch the movie. Shake your head in incredulity at the raw power of adolescent narcissism."It should be borne in mind that homosexuality was catagorised as a psychiatric disorder until 1974…. In 1954, even in sunny California lesbians were being given shock treatment to bring them to their senses."—page 231" '...the best people are those who fight against all obstacles in the pursuit of happiness.' 'Even murder?' 'Oh yes,' she replied, 'if necessary.' " [15 year old Juliette Hulmes - Anne Perry]—page 269Adobe Digital Edition (ePub), 327 pages less

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