Check out this bad boy!

I've long been an admirer of the Peter Robinson Inspector Banks series. The stories take place in Yorkshire and concern the music-loving police inspector and his many cases. I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of the latest book in the series, Bad Boy, which will be released in the US on August 24.

As the book opens, Inspector Alan Banks is taking a holiday from his duties at the Eastvale police station. This is a great pity, because a woman arrives asking specifically to speak to Banks. Juliet Doyle is a former neighbor of Banks', and she had a rather delicate matter to discuss with him. Since he's gone, she is persuaded to speak instead with Annie Cabbot, who is a colleague and former lover of Banks. Juliet says that she's found a gun in her daughter's room, and she needs to know what to do about it. This is where it becomes interesting for an American reader to notice the differences between gun laws in the US and the UK. Apparently, just possessing a firearm in the UK means an automatic 5 year prison term. No doubt Juliet was hoping her friend Banks could advise her on how to turn the gun in without getting her daughter into trouble. Annie, however, feels compelled to report the situation to her supervisor. From then on, things go terribly wrong.

Juliet's husband and their daughter Erin are at home, waiting for Juliet and Banks to arrive and deal with the gun situation. Instead, almost an entire police squad descends on the house to confiscate the dangerous weapon. In the course of the confusion, Juliet's husband Patrick is shocked by the police with a taser and subsequently dies in the hospital.

It soon emerges that Erin, the girl with the gun, is sharing a house with two other girls. One girl, Rose, has only just moved in, but the other girl "Francesca" has been Erin's friend since childhood. Francesca turns out to be Banks' daughter, Tracy. Once Tracy hears about the problems at Erin's parents' house, she immediately rushes to tell Erin's boyfriend, Jaff. Jaff is the "bad boy" in the title of the book.

Jaff is the one Erin took the gun from, after a heated argument. After Tracy informs him of the current situation, Jaff tells her they must find a place to lie low until they can leave the country. At first, Tracy thinks this is a marvelously fun idea. She's resentful of her absentee father, and feels like her job working in a bookstore is a disappointment to her parents. She knows her father is out of the country on vacation, so she immediately suggests that they hide out in his isolated country house for a few days. Jaff, extremely paranoid, takes her mobile phone from her "so they can't be traced." She still thinks she's on an adventure until a few days later when she opens Jaff's bag in an attempt to retrieve her phone. She discovers a huge amount of cash, another gun, and what appears to be massive amounts of drugs. At approximately the same time, Jaff, looking through papers in the house, discovers that Tracy is a policeman's daughter. If she wasn't before, Tracy is now officially Jaff's hostage and bargaining chip. As they are getting ready to flee the house to go to London, Annie Cabbot shows up to water the plants.

Banks arrives back in England only to be met with the news of everything that has been happening. He must attempt to track down Jaff before he decides to get rid of Tracy permanently. There is also a major crime boss that Banks suspects of being the source of the guns, but he is unable to prove anything.

I must admit that I haven't read the books in order, or probably even all of the books in the series, so there were things that were mentioned from time to time that were unfamiliar to me. This book also has the recurrent theme of all of the characters (especially Banks) needing to inform the reader what music they are listening to at all times. It's rather funny to be enlightened as to the soundtrack of a hostage situation/car chase.

Final Verdict for Bad Boy: Three Gherkins, for being a page-turning and action-filled episode in the Inspector Banks saga

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Skip the book, take in the market instead!

Ruth Rendell has always been one of my favorite authors. I'd wait anxiously for the newest release from her, whether it was from the Inspector Wexford series, or one of her "one off" novels. I recently read The Monster in the Box, which she has said will be the last Wexford novel. I love the characters in the Wexford books, and I've enjoyed keeping up with their lives throughout the 22 novels featuring the characters. However, I did feel that the last few Wexford novels were just not up to the standards of the earlier books. Rendell did keep the events current, dealing with such topics as infertility, modern day slavery and so on, but I felt the later novels were stretching the bounds of credulity a bit too much to be enjoyable.

I was therefore pleased to find out that she'd released a new non-series book, Portobello. I waited and waited and waited for the book to become available in the U.S. She is such a popular writer, I reasoned, surely it will be on sale here soon. Last May, when I was in London, I went into a bookstore and actually held the coveted book in my hands. I thumbed through it lovingly, skimming the text and carried it around for a while, fully intending to buy it. By the time I got ready to leave the bookstore, though, I had already grabbed more books than I could comfortably handle, and I was worried about paying surcharges for overweight luggage. Thinking again that surely the book would be released in the US soon, I reluctantly culled it from my stack of purchases.

Fast forward a year: still no Portobello release in the US! According to the US amazon.com, there's no scheduled release date. I honestly don't understand it. Still, I'm not one to let a little thing like not being able to buy the book stop me, so I began to scour WorldCat for libraries in the US who might be so kind as to lend me the book. I would like to offer a grateful shout out to the kind folks at the Johnson County Library in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, who came through with the book on Interlibrary Loan. You guys are stars!!!

So, after all that, on to the book. This one is really of more interest than usual to an anglophile such as myself due to the setting alone. The events in the novel take place around the Portobello Road area of London. There are plenty of descriptions not only of the famous market, but also of the pubs and neighborhoods (both good and bad) in the area.

The novel really centers around three characters, and how their lives intersect. First we have Eugene Wren, an art dealer who is living an upper-class life with his doctor fiancee, Ella. Next, we have Ella's patient Joel Roseman, who is slowly sinking into mental illness. Finally, there is the young burglar Lance, who has been reluctantly taken in by a distant relative into a crumbling, decrepit house.

The story begins with Joel being attacked (or more likely, having a panic attack and injuring himself) in the street. He is taken to hospital, but in the upheaval manages to lose an envelope containing 115 pounds. This envelope is found by Eugene. Since Eugene doesn't need the money from this sudden windfall, and since he's frequently seen "lost cat" posters in his neighborhood, he hits on the idea of posting fliers in the area saying he's found a sum of cash "between 90 and 160 pounds" and asking anyone who lost the money to contact him. Naturally, opportunistic Lance sees the notice and immediately decides to try his luck. He contacts Eugene, who asks Lance to come to his house to explain how much money he lost and where he lost it. Now, I know Eugene is supposed to be a somewhat trusting and naive soul, but it makes no sense at all that he wouldn't just ask the person over the phone how much he'd lost, rather than inviting him to his house. Once Lance arrives, he is immediately impressed by the vast art treasures on display in Eugene's house, and he instantly starts working on a plan to break in. He guesses the wrong amount of money for the lost loot, and is shown the door.

At the same time, Eugene has shown a propensity for addictive behavior. He has been able to overcome an addiction to alcohol, but is putting on weight. In an attempt to stop overeating, he begins to buy a new sugar-free candy, Chocorange. In another odd twist in the story, he becomes secretive and ashamed about the candy, hiding massive amounts in his house and inventing excuses to be alone so he can eat them. His hidden addiction nearly costs him everything, and it is inexplicable. Why is he so secretive and ashamed about eating some candy? It's not very believable . . .

Joel is extremely isolated, although he is financially well cared for as his executive father supports him. He becomes overly dependent on Ella, Eugene's fiance, when she visits him in the hospital to deliver the money Eugene found. He continues to call her to his house as his condition worsens. Ella attempts to get him to see therapists and gets carers in to stay with him, but he continues to deteriorate.

In the meantime, Lance is being threatened by the new man in his ex-girlfriend's life. Lance was living with the glamorous Gemma, but he punched her in the mouth when she asked him to get a job. She threw him out, and now Lance is informed he must come up with 1000 pounds to pay for the tooth Gemma lost when he punched her, or else. Lance uses his burglary skills to try to come up with the money. In the meantime, Gemma has come back around and is visiting Lance secretly at his new home with his great uncle. This is yet another twist in the story that doesn't ring true. Gemma is described as looking like Paris Hilton, or as if she just came off a catwalk and lives in an immaculate flat. Why in the world would she want to hook up with a smelly, unemployed, unmotivated man who had already abused her???

There is another unbelievable turn in the story when one of a pair of criminals attempts to convince his cohort in crime that they must go to the police and confess. Why didn't he just go to the police himself???

While there are plenty of bad events and a few deaths in the story, these things end up improving the lives of the people who survive. I just wish the way they got there had been a bit more realistic.

Final verdict for Portobello: Three Gherkins, for a great setting but ultimately peculiar and outlandish plot twists

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Trying to out-Slaughter Karin Slaughter

Let's get one thing straight here: Karin Slaughter is the queen of disturbed killer fiction. No matter how bizarre you make your killer, you just cannot compete with the lineup of weirdos and wackos that populate Grant County, GA. So don't even try. Unfortunately, no one gave this advice to Mo Hayder. Her novel Birdman is an attempt to "out-Slaughter" the reigning mistress of crime by having her victims dispatched in creatively gruesome (if not very believable) ways.

Oh please. While Karin Slaughter can make me squirm in my chair, this book just made me roll my eyes. Not only are the victims killed in a totally illogical and ridiculous manner, but the events take place largely in the lovely area of Greenwich. Call me Pollyanna, but I really don't want to hear about that beautiful site being overrun with strip clubs, junkies and mangled, dumped bodies. OK, so maybe Hayder's vision of Greenwich is closer to reality than mine. I'd prefer to keep my illusions intact, thanks very much!

The book opens with a whole pile of bodies being discovered in a wasteland area in Greenwich. When they are autopsied, many strange things are found. Some of the bodies are quickly identified as strippers and junkies, but some of the victims remain unidentified. Trying to sort out the mess is Detective Jack Caffery. Jack is something of a mess himself. He still lives in his boyhood home, which has many disturbing memories for him. When he was a child, his older brother disappeared after an argument. Jack is convinced that the next door neighbor (who still lives there) is responsible. The neighbor seems to delight in tormenting Jack in whatever way he can. Because Jack is obsessed with proving the neighbor's guilt, he really doesn't have much energy left over for personal relationships. His current girlfriend, Veronica, is pushing to make their relationship permanent, while Jack is looking for a way out. At the same time, he becomes somewhat chummy with one of the former strippers he interviews about the case.

The book does have a somewhat exciting ending, but 3 good pages out of a whole book don't amount to much. There is one huge illogical point in the murders, which I won't give away, but it was enough to ruin the story for me.

Final Verdict for Birdman: Two Gherkins, for a thrilling ending, but an unbelievable buildup to that point

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Nasty Nellie becomes nice

Perhaps I'm dating myself, but I grew up watching Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa and of course the horrible Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Imagine my delight when I saw the book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, written by Alison Arngrim, none other than Nasty Nellie herself! It's been pretty quiet since Nellie married Percival and left Walnut Grove, so I was anxious to find out what she'd been up to . . . torturing small furry creatures, perhaps?

The book is really one of the best celebrity "tell-alls" that I've ever read. She starts off describing her somewhat eccentric parents and her unusual upbringing in Hollywood. Her parents were both in show business, her father as a manager and her mother as a well-known voice artist (she was the voice of Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost, among others). While sometimes the family finances were good, just as frequently they were not. This led to a lot of moving around and instability in young Alison's life. Still, this might not have been so terrible had not she been left alone, repeatedly, with her abusive older brother. In addition to abusing drugs, the brother sounds as if he had severe mental problems. Alison gives very frank and vivid details of his prolonged abuse of her. It really was physical and mental torture. The fact that she has come through it such a strong and upbeat person is really amazing!

Since her parents had showbiz connections, both she and her brother were often sent to auditions. She landed the part of Nellie when she was 11 years old. Much of the book deals with her experiences on the set, and boy, are they eye opening! It's very interesting to read about not only her fellow cast mates (more on them later!) but also about how things worked on the set. She is very good at describing her adventures in a hilarious, down-to-earth way. I was really surprised at the lack of safety precautions that were taken during the filming. I guess there weren't too many regulations back then! She describes being flung down a hill in a wheelchair (sans seat belt), thrown into a raging river, dunked in stagnant ponds, etc. with something like wonder that she came through unscathed. I'm sure none of those practices would be allowed using child actors today!

There's plenty of inside gossip about her co-stars. She has only warm and glowing things to say about Melissa Gilbert, who befriended her on the first day and has remained a close friend. Melissa Sue Anderson, on the other hand, was stand-offish and aloof then and still is, apparently. Something about those icy blue eyes would give that one away! Alison also has fond memories of Michael Landon, but she certainly doesn't try to hide his flaws. Many members of the crew also worked with some of Hollywood's biggest stars over the years, so there are some interesting tidbits thrown in here and there about people who weren't on the show, but who are household names.

Sadly, the biggest Little House mystery of all wasn't solved in this book. Mary, throughout the first years of the show, had lovely golden blond hair. Then she went blind, and her hair turned black. What was up with that??? We may never know. I guess some mysteries aren't meant to be solved.

The latter part of the book deals with Alison's life after the show ended. After the death of her co-star and good friend Steve Tracy due to AIDS in the 1980s, she became a tireless volunteer with AIDS organizations. Through that work, she also became involved in Protect, an organization that works to strengthen child abuse laws in California and throughout the US.

I am really a big fan of Alison Arngrim after reading this book. She tells her story with courage and humor. I hope there are more books in the pipeline!

Final verdict for Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: Five Gherkins, for being a funny and fond visit with a childhood icon!

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But sometimes a grumble is necessary!

I was once again drawn in at the local secondhand bookstore by an interesting-looking book with a British connection. In Mustn't Grumble by Joe Bennett, the author (a British born ex-pat living in New Zealand) decides to travel around Britain following the same path H.V. Morton took years earlier and documented in his book In Search of England.

Of course, I would be interested in any book about travel in Britain, but I was especially seduced (and you'd think by now I would have learned my lesson) by all the glowing blurbs on the cover. Among them: "Extremely funny," "A very funny book," A brilliant wit," and "A funny and poignant portrait of Bennett's homeland."

{sigh} I don't know, after seeing all that emphasis on humor, wouldn't you open the book with the expectation that there might be the odd chuckle to be had among the pages??? Maybe the likes of Bill Bryson and J. Maarten Troost have unreasonably raised my expectations in regard to humorous travel books. Suffice it to say, there was nary a giggle to be found in this dreary travel tome.

The author has acquaintances scattered around Britain that he visits throughout his trip, which I'm sure was all very nice for him, but his narratives of the encounters don't exactly make for exciting reading for the uninvolved observer. He's also inordinately fond of recounting his drunken exploits -- both old and new. Why he thinks anyone would care is a question that's never answered.

Perhaps if I had been familiar with the Morton book I would have enjoyed this one more, as the author is continually comparing Morton's descriptions of towns with what he encounters some 80 years later. As it was, I found Bennett's descriptions of his day to day travels exceedingly dull. His main observations seem to be that no one will pick up hitch-hikers in Britain anymore, and that the British are extremely fearful of apparently widespread and random, out-of-control violence that plagues everyone who dares to step outside their homes.

So I'm not sure if all the authors of the raving blurbs on the cover of the book read a different one than I did, or if maybe they needed some wildly inaccurate blurbs for their own book covers. At any rate, I found nothing humorous and very little of interest in this book. I really MUST grumble about being misled yet again!

Final Verdict for Mustn't Grumble: One Gherkin, for some descriptions of unfamiliar areas of Britain, but overall a gloomy and unamusing read

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Innocent or guilty?

While many people who wind up in prison claim to be innocent of the crimes they were convicted of, there are undoubtedly some who are unjustly imprisoned. The innocence or guilt of one woman forms the story of the film The Sculptress, based on the novel of the same name by Minette Walter.

Overweight Olive lives at home with her parents and beautiful sister Amber. One day the police are called to the home to find Olive covered in blood, and her mother and Amber dismembered in the kitchen. Since Olive is the only unharmed person present, she is arrested. She soon confesses to the crime and is sent to prison, where she earns the nickname "The Sculptress" because of the way the bodies were cut up. Funny, I didn't think artists routinely worked with meat cleavers and blood, but I guess that is the artistic temperament for you!

Enter Rosalind Leigh, an author who is commissioned to write a book about Olive and the murders. Rosalind is somewhat damaged herself, having recently endured the death of her young daughter. Because her husband was drinking at the time of the accident which killer their daughter, Rosalind has broken off her relationship with him. She's just starting to get on with her life when she gets the assignment to interview Olive.

Rosalind's first meeting with Olive in prison is uncomfortable. Olive is a hulking, unsmiling presence, and she is less than forthcoming when answering Rosalind's questions. Not even sure she wants to write the book, Rosalind nevertheless finds herself becoming intrigued with the case. As part of her research, she interviews the first policeman on the case. Hal Hawksley was so traumatized by the sight that greeted him in the kitchen that he left the police force and opened a pub. But strange things are happening at the pub, too . . .

As Rosalind digs deeper into the case, Olive becomes more of a sympathetic character. Rosalind begins to wonder, could Olive actually be innocent? There are certainly other possible suspects: Olive's father, a shifty neighbor, or and enemy of the lovely but sadistic Amber. As she attempts to investigate the case, Rosalind is convinced that Olive's confession was given in order to protect someone and that the police didn't do a thorough investigation.

At the same time, Olive is shifty-eyed and secretive. She tells sad stories only to deny them later. Is she truly innocent, or a master manipulator? Evidence is shown for both sides. And just who is her lawyer in cahoots with? And what does it all have to do with the many "accidents" that befall Hal's pub?

The interconnected events are eventually explained, although not all questions are answered. I know we were supposed to be left somewhat in the dark at the end of the story, but all of Olive's back and forth stories ended up leaving me more confused than conflicted!

Final verdict for The Sculptress: Three gherkins, for being a suspenseful, if somewhat unsatisfying mystery

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Advice for first-time or seasoned travelers!

The website Anglotopia.net is a wonderful resource for information on all things British. There are news headlines, forums, entertainment and wonderful travel advice. Now, the most useful travel advice about London has been gathered into a downloadable book called 101 London Travel Tips.

The book is divided into extremely useful sections covering such topics as Travel Planning & Advice, Lodging, Food and Health & Safety. Jonathan Thomas and his wife Jackie, who wrote the guide together, do a wonderful job of providing advice that will be useful to both the first-time visitor to London, as well as tips that will enhance a repeat visit. A very useful aspect of the guide is that it is written by Americans, so there is a lot of information about what might be unexpected or different for American visitors. I especially appreciated the advice on how to order in pubs and how to deal with tipping! There's also a great section with an explanation of common British slang which will be invaluable to those of us on this side of the pond who travel to London with the sometimes mistaken belief that we speak the same language!

Although the title is 101 London Travel Tips, there are actually many more tips included. Many of the tips consist of lists such as "6 Fun Things to do in London at Night," "The Top 5 iPhone Apps," "5 Must See London Shows" and so on.

Anyone who loves London will greatly enjoy reading this guide! Not only can you come up with some great ideas for your next trip, but you can also benefit from the experience of someone who has a great fondness for his subject! You can download a copy of 101 London Travel Tips for only $10 at Anglotopia.net. While you're there, be sure and browse the site. You'll be amazed at all the information to be found there!

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of 101 London Travel Tips

Final Verdict for 100 London Travel Tips: Five Gherkins, for being a wonderful guide for London travellers!

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Bill Bryson's favorite country

I've always been a fan of the writings of Bill Bryson since I discovered his book "Neither Here Nor There" while living in Sweden, and he presented the hilarious idea that he expected to see Swedes walking down the street in miner's helmets, with lamps illuminated. This was in response to the preposterous notion of all cars in Sweden having their headlights come on automatically, even during bright summer days. I had often thought it was somewhat ridiculous for cars have their headlights on at all times, too, so the notion that this would somehow apply to people as well was just hilariously appropriate. Sadly, I don't think the miner's helmets have caught on among the pedestrians, yet, but I expect to see it eventually . . .

I'm always thrilled when there is a new book out by Bill Bryson, and it's even better to listen to him reading his works as audio books. I was therefore thrilled to discover a TV program he did in the late 1990s called Notes from a Small Island (based on his book of the same name). At the time of the filming, Bryson and his family had moved back to the US after living in Britain for over 20 years. He decided to write about all the things he loved and would miss about Britain (although he subsequently moved back to Britain and continues to live there today).


The series is divided into six episodes where he discusses things such as sports (including those little known contests such as pipe smoking), disused underground stations, British inventions and London cabbies. There are occasional appearances by celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Alexei Sayle, although they just tend to pop in and out without much introduction or fanfare. And that's really appropriate, since the focus here is on Britain and what makes it great. My favorite episode had to be the one where Bryson tried to figure out why the British are so fond of traveling to freezing, windy, miserable seaside resorts, only to sit stubbornly on chairs on the beach for the duration of their visits.


As a fellow American who also appreciates all things British, I can totally appreciate Bryson's enthusiasm and wonder. I just wish there had been more time spent on some of the topics. The visits to each area and subject are quite brief, but overall the program does a good job of showcasing different aspects of the British landscape and character. I for one am happy that Bryson was able to return to the country he loves, although I do wish he would get out more and write some more travel memoirs.
Final Verdict for Notes from a Small Island TV Series: Four Gherkins, for being an affectionate and interesting portrait of a beautiful part of the world

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Please excuse my incoherence

I had a late night last night finishing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. I had been anxiously awaiting the final installment in the Lisbeth Salander story, and while I would have preferred to wait for the audio book, I was delighted to get the book not long after its release from my local library. It was with some sadness that I started this book, knowing that it would be my final meeting with the anti-social, spunky and totally unique Salander.

The story begins right after the events of the previous book, The Girl Who Played With Fire (which I believe was overall the strongest of the 3 books in the Millennium series). Salander is in the hospital, being treated for horrific injuries, and is still a suspect in several murders. The journalist Mikael Blomkvist is once more in her corner as he attempts to unravel the conspiracy that has led to this tragic point in Salander's life.

There are quite a few problems with this book, so far as it concerns American readers. First of all, there are SO MANY characters -- doctors, policemen, journalists, government officials, secret police, etc. Add to it that some are part of a conspiracy while others are working to expose the conspiracy, and all of those characters also have varying degrees of knowledge about what is going on. It's really hard to keep up with, not only a character's role, but also how much he or she knows and whether they are pro- or anti-Salander.

The other major problem is that the book concerns a number of people and events from the last 50 years of Swedish history. Some people are mentioned with an asterisk following their names, which indicates there is a short explanatory note at the end of the book. Other things are just mentioned without any sort of explanation what so ever. The first 1/4 or so of the book is also tedious when it DOES explain the long and tangled history of the Swedish intelligence service.

It was also a bit disappointing that Salander, injured and without her computer, has a somewhat limited role in the events in the story. Although she is central to the action of the story, most of the work has to be done by others on her behalf. The book does pick up as she recovers and events move toward her trial. Once the trial opens, the cross-examination by her lawyer of some of her old enemies is truly page-turning. There is also a side story involving Blomkvist's former boss/sometime lover Erika Berger and the difficulities she encounters in her new job as editor of a major newspaper.

Although it has been rumored that author Stieg Larsson left outlines for a total of 10 books in the series at his death in 2004, this book ends with most loose ends tied up, so it's a fitting end. I'm anxious to see the other two films in the series. Hope they are released in the US soon!
Final Verdict for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest: Four Gherkins, for a slow start, but a page-turning ending!

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Winners!

The winners of the Howard Goodall CD "The Seasons" are:

Melissa B.

and

Heather

The winners have been notified by email. Congrats, and thanks to everyone who entered! Watch this space for more giveaways in the future!

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The face of evil

A while ago I found a copy of Beyond Belief: The Moors Murderers: The Story of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley by Emlyn Williams in a second hand bookstore. I picked it up the other day and started reading. It was published in 1968, so most of the information in the book, while "fresh" at the time the murders took place in the early 1960s, has somewhat outdated. The book looked at the murders at a time when Hindley and Brady had only confessed to 3 murders. In the late 1980s, they admitted to a further two.

While the book does a good job of setting out the crimes and their aftermath, the writing style is somewhat annoying. Williams seemed to have some sort of aversion to quotation marks, so he would be describing a scene, and then immediately launch into what someone said without following the grammatical written convention of clearly identifying the speaker and using quotation marks to indicate when they started and stopped speaking. It was very annoying. He also "imagined" a great deal of what must have been going on in Hindley's mind during the events.

Recently, Carol Ann Lee has published One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley. This book has the benefit of both being up to date, as well as including the words from the killers themselves. The author had access to Myra Hindley's unpublished autobiography as well as Ian Brady's own words from his book about serial killer motivation called The Gates of Janus. Naturally, there is a great deal of contradiction that the reader is left to interpret. Before her death in 2002, Myra Hindley had tried for years to be released on parole. Her main arguments were that most killers sentenced to life terms had been released after serving much less time than she had, and also that she had become a deeply religious Catholic while in prison and was a changed person.

Williams believed that Hindley was obsessed with Brady to the point of being willing to do anything he asked of her so long as he would agree to maintain a relationship with her. She did keep a diary during the time when she first met Brady, and she recorded her frequent frustration with his treatment of her. For weeks he would ignore her, only to be nice to her and get her hopes up the next. When he finally did ask her out, she was completely infatuated with him.

The Lee book takes a similar tack, but gives Myra much more blame for participating in the murders. While both authors agree that Brady was the main architect behind the crimes, there has always been debate about to what extent Myra participated. In Lee's book, she quotes Myra as saying that Brady was extremely abusive to her. In addition to frequent sexual assaults and beatings, he also threatened to harm her family if she didn't go along with his plans. At the beginning, before there were any murders, she stated she wanted to go to the police, but nothing had been done yet and she feared for her safety. Later, she claimed that she did feel remorse for participating in the crimes by luring the victims into her car. She maintained, however, that she never actually participated in the murders. This statement is contradicted by Brady's statements (which have been refuted by forensic evidence for the most part), as well as the horrible tape recording the pair made while abusing and murdering a little girl. So the degree to which Hindley was a willing participant in murder is still not crystal clear in this book. Some people who met her over the years found her cold, sullen and calculating, while others described her as warm, open and genuine. There's no doubt that she presented different aspects of herself to people based on their perceived abilities to get her positive publicity in her bid to gain parole.

The thing that really amazed me about the whole thing was that, even today, Hindley seems to be the much more hated figure of the two killers. The crimes were shocking and horrible, but clearly Brady was the one who wanted to experiment with murder, who was sexually attracted to children, and did the raping and (most if not all of) the killing. Lee's book, however, begins with Hindley being taken to a hospital suffering from the pneumonia which would soon claim her life. After her death, the room in which she stayed was completely gutted -- everything was taken out and burned. No funeral home in the area wanted to handle her funeral. The book also states that after her arrest, the name Myra virtually disappeared as a girl's name in Britain. But the crimes didn't stop people from naming their sons Ian, did it?

I was also amazed at the extent to which the families of the killers were targeted for abuse. I suppose that since people were unable to get their hands on the murderers, they opted for the next best thing. It was really distressing that Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith, who went to the police and stopped the murders, was repeatedly attacked and harassed, to the extent that he eventually went to prison for retaliating against a tormentor.

All in all, the two books presented fascinating, if conflicting pictures of this hated figure.

Final Verdict for Beyond Belief: Two Gherkins, for a detailed, if speculative look at the killer's motives

Final Verdict for One of Your Own: Four Gherkins, for being a very well researched and heavily footnoted look at one of the most despised people of the last century

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Oh you lucky, lucky UK people!

This Friday, June 4, US audiences will get to see the new Russell Brand/Jonah Hill film Get Him to the Greek. Brand resurrects his character Aldous Snow, the dissolute rock star from the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The film opens on June 25 in the UK, and UK fans can find out how to enter to see a preview screening of the film. Love that rock band Infant Sorrow? Are you Aldous Snow’s number 1 fan? Well if you fancy seeing him at a preview screening of Get Him to the Greek, then why not call him up and find out how…

07585 064258*

*Charges are based on the caller's standard cost of a call from a fixed or mobile line. The cost of calling will vary depending on your standard calling charges to mobiles and it is your responsibility to check charges before calling. Callers must have the bill payer's permission before calling. For full terms and conditions visit http://www.gethimtothegreekmovie.co.uk/fan

Good luck to those in the UK who make the call! Here in the US, I'll just have to queue up and buy a ticket with the rest of the mob!

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