REVIEW

THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK OF TRUE CRIME - Larry Writer

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

Larry Writer's short story collection, THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK OF CRIME covers 21 different cases, spread in a date range from 1892 through to 2001. Which is definitely a big enough span to give a reader a chance to realise that law and order, crime, murder, bad behaviour has been around for a very long time.

Although the collection is not necessarily put together in date order, there's something quietly telling about the way that patterns emerge, although luckily, mass killings are not quite as common here as the two entries in this collection perhaps indicate.

As with all these sorts of short story collections, there are some cases that will trigger a particular response in readers, there are other cases where maybe the passage of time, or the type of crime, might simply be general interest. Personally I was reminded yet again of the appalling and pointless death of Dr Victor Chang, and I was intrigued by the story of the Cross-Dressing Killer from 1917 as that's a case I'd never heard of before.

Whilst there's not necessarily a connection between each of these short stories, or an overriding theme for the book, each case is a reminder that the more things change, the more some things simply don't.

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
Author
ISBN
9781741962079
Year of Publication
BLURB

Twenty-one of Australia's most startling real-life crimes, from the late 1800's to the present day are collected here in one gripping volume. Using exhaustive research, court records, police statements and original interviews, Larry Writer offers fascinating new insights into the lives of some of Australia's most notorious villains and their victims.

Review THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK OF TRUE CRIME - Larry Writer
Karen Chisholm
Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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