Customer Reviews

A Child's Book of True Crime [Signed]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The above quote, from p. 194 of Chloe Hooper's A CHILD'S BOOK OF TRUE CRIME, is an apt one for describing the feeling I was left with after reading this novel. There are so many options presented during the protagonist's exploration of the mystery described (the murder, years before of a young woman with whom a veterinarian was conducting an extra-marital affair, and the subsequent disappearance of his wife) that the reader is pretty much left to draw his/her own conclusions -- nothing is really resolved for certain. This lends an air of doubt to the story, but it also keeps it from being 'tied up nicely' at the end. In many cases, this is an appreciated effect of good writing -- but here, it left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

Hooper's writing is good -- especially in relation to Kate, her young central character. Kate is 23, out on her own for the first time in her life, teaching 4th grade in a primary school in Tasmania. Her uncertainties about how she should live her own life come into play very strongly here. Allowing herself to be drawn into an affair with a married man -- the father of her favorite pupil -- is only her first mistake. She comes to suspect that his wife has known about their affair for some time, and begins to feel like she might be in danger. The man's wife is a writer, having just published a 'true crime' book about the affair and disappearance mentioned above -- the crime is still vividly in the minds of people who live in the area, and they are very resentful and offended by the woman's prying into events which they would just as soon keep to themselves.

The story of Kate brings out many uncertainties about life with which, I'm sure, many of the readers can identify -- her above-mentioned search for direction in her life being the most prevalent. It also astutely describes many things felt and experienced by young children -- using Lucien, the son of her paramour, as its focus. Lucien is tortured and troubled by what he sees as coldness and seperation in the lives of his parents. His father admits on one occasion to Kate (and this is very telling) that they try to treat him as 'a small adult' -- not a very realistic (or healthy) way to raise a child.

Hooper has taken on a difficult and challenging topic/theme for her first novel -- it doesn't quite succeed, but that doesn't mean she's not a fine writer with a lot of potential. I'd be very interested to see what she does next.

This book is like an over-large child's jigsaw puzzle (you know the ones I mean: each piece of the puzzle is inchthick and cut from wood) with one, two, three, four, five pieces missing. You can't tell what the picture is supposed to be (you've lost the top of the box), but - from what you can make out - it looks like it could have been interesting.

Kate Byrne is a twenty-two year old teacher at a small school in Tasmania. She is having an affair with Thomas, the father of Lucien, one of the children in her class. What complicates the issue somewhat is the fact that Thomas' wife, Veronica, is the celebrated author of a book entitled Murder at Black Swan Point, an account of a local murder in which a young woman was savagely murdered, supposedly by the wife of the man she was having an affair with.

When you learn that somebody has scratched I KNOW on Kate's classroom door and tampered with her brakes, you might think so-far, so Murder She Wrote. However, that would be to overlook the presence of Kate's own book (which acts as a preface to each chapter), a true crime book for children (basically retelling - or reinvestigating - the events of Murder at Black Swan Point with animals standing in for their human counterparts).

Okay, you say. So it's a literary Murder She Wrote (with Angela Lansbury playing - say, Margaret Atwood). Well, yes and no. Because Chloe Hooper is no Margaret Atwood (much as I think she would like A Child's Book of True Crime to mirror the success of Alias Grace). This feels very much like a first novel. Don't get me wrong. There are lots of good things here (what goes on in Kate's mind, the relationship between Kate and Thomas and Veronica, the brief sex scene behind the recycling bins). It's just that we often find ourselves being driven further and further away from the crime scene, as it were (I'm not convinced the animal story is useful or successful, I'm not convinced Kate would so easily start brandishing a knife, I'm not convinced everything would slip apart as faultlessly as it does).

I'm afraid it's a case of 4 out of 5 for effort, but only 2 or 3 out of 5 for accomplishment.

Rare is it that I pause in reading a book to admire the writer's craft, his or, as in this case, her ability to turn a phrase, the well structured sentence that makes me think perhaps I should start reading poetry. Chloe Hooper's book, A Child's Book of True Crime is a story that I stopped often to admire. Less a murder mystery and more a meditation upon the banal and routine crimes committed against children as they pass toward adulthood the writing becomes at once more luminous and less attached to the "true crime" of the title. Ms Hooper moves freely among perspectives and realities-the dead make appearances and a detective agency of wildlife creatures editorialize while the story's protagonist seems in danger of becoming the victim of the crime she investigates. Ultimately what matters most in this wonderful novel is the delicious pleasure of its reading. I recommend it highly.

This book is a nice, yet forgettable story about a brand new school teacher who has not grown into adulthood. I really felt for the protagonist, especially during her conversations with her married lover who tells her repeatedly that he does not care about her much. She is pathetically overshadowed by his wife, who is not only elegant, intelligent, and vivacious, but also happens to be writing a true crime novel about a woman who kills her husband's lover. She is most comfortable with the children in her class, and out of place among the other faculty. More than anything else, this story is about the humilation of a young woman who is way out of her league. Of course, there is a plot and everything, but not much happens. I couldn't reccommend this book, but I will definitely look into any forthcoming books by Chloe Hooper, because I think she has potential.

Evoking a dark world of violence and doom from the outset, Hooper sets her debut novel in Tasmania, a remote former penal colony where the aborigine population was eliminated by genocide and prisoners were subjected to unspeakable cruelty. Mystery, deception, and betrayal are at the heart of three stories told simultaneously. A children's tale written by 4th grade teacher Kate Byrne uses animals to tell about a 1983 murder (hence, the title); a popular novel written by Veronica Marne, the wife of Kate's lover, Thomas Marne, describes the same murder; and the on-going triangle of Kate, Veronica, and Thomas provides the day-to-day action.

This is a lot to cover in 230 pages. In order to tell Kate's story and provide the background of her affair with Thomas Marne, Hooper must give many flashbacks while simultaneously revealing Kate's life in the classroom, her trysts with Thomas, and the perceived threats to her life. The suspense depends on the reader's seeing parallels between Kate's affair and that of the 1983 victim, Ellie Siddells, so Kate, as narrator, must also provide information about Ellie's background and her murder. The animal story is yet another level of abstraction which the reader must correlate with Kate's life.

Though the novel is filled with dazzling descriptions and some insightful observations about childhood, the novel ultimately ends up being talky, its three stories overwhelming its characters and obscuring its focus. The narrator, Kate, dictates and talks about the action, instead of bringing it to life, and the reader never really gets to know her. Plot and suspense are the novel's focus at the beginning, while Kate's (undeveloped) character and her coming of age are the focus at the end, a problem which makes the author's overall purpose unclear. The quality of the writing and some gorgeous descriptive paragraphs will take your breath away, however, and perhaps leave you as anxious as I am to see what Hooper does in her next novel. Mary Whipple

In Chloe Hooper's debut novel the isle of Tasmania features prominently. Tasmania, with its colourful convict past, has been a traditional locale of Australian Gothic. The tradition continued with Mathew Kneale's English Passengers and particularly with Richard Flanagan's fabulous Gould's Book of Fish.
Kate Byrne is a young teacher in a small Australian town outside of Hobart. She has been plunged into a new career and a new way of life very quickly and it appears she is not coping well. An affair with the self centred, boorish father of her brightest pupil does not help. That her lover's wife, who may know of the affair, has just written a true crime story of a recent local murder is disconcerting. When Kate reads Veronica's book she begins to fear for her future.
Without going into the book's ending Ms. Hooper has done very well in her examination of a young woman coming into the adult world. Kate realises childhood was not so complicated and that she must adapt.
The other story in the novel is the imaginary local animals investigation into the true crime. This is fascinating and one is loath to refer to criminals as "animals" after reading their account.
This a great first novel, well written and a very good and unsettling account of the loss of innocence. Highly recommended.

This book was incorrectly sitting in the children's section at my local second hand book store. Clearly whoever shelved it didn't bother to read the blurb. This is definitely NOT a children's book, despite the title. This book garnered a lot of press upon its publication a few years ago, mostly because of the author's young age. I think Hooper was around 24 when this book was published.

I didn't particularly enjoy the book, but then again, I am not a fan of Literary Fiction so I'm probably not the right audience. I didn't like barrage of draining and depressing themes - naïve school teacher, married lover, an old crime of passion, mental breakdown and no actual resolution. Kate, the protagonist, isn't particularly likeable and by the end I couldn't have cared less if she jumped off the cliff.

On the bright side, I was impressed by Hooper's knowledge of Tasmania and her intimate portrayal of life in a small town. I thought the interspersed chapters of the Australian animals solving their own crimes to be quirky, powerful and unique (albeit still depressing, what with one being shot for fur, another sterile from koala Chlamydia, and another on the brink of extinction) and humanising. Which is a bit weird, because they're animals. Or perhaps not so weird.

In any case, if you like literary fiction and crime fiction, then you might want to give this book a read if for no other reason than the fact that it is highly original and reasonably well written.

The above quote, from p. 194 of Chloe Hooper's A CHILD'S BOOK OF TRUE CRIME, is an apt one for describing the feeling I was left with after reading this novel. There are so many options presented during the protagonist's exploration of the mystery described (the murder, years before of a young woman with whom a veterinarian was conducting an extra-marital affair, and the subsequent disappearance of his wife) that the reader is pretty much left to draw his/her own conclusions -- nothing is really resolved for certain. This lends an air of doubt to the story, but it also keeps it from being 'tied up nicely' at the end. In many cases, this is an appreciated effect of good writing -- but here, it left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

Hooper's writing is good -- especially in relation to Kate, her young central character. Kate is 23, out on her own for the first time in her life, teaching 4th grade in a primary school in Tasmania. Her uncertainties about how she should live her own life come into play very strongly here. Allowing herself to be drawn into an affair with a married man -- the father of her favorite pupil -- is only her first mistake. She comes to suspect that his wife has known about their affair for some time, and begins to feel like she might be in danger. The man's wife is a writer, having just published a 'true crime' book about the affair and disappearance mentioned above -- the crime is still vividly in the minds of people who live in the area, and they are very resentful and offended by the woman's prying into events which they would just as soon keep to themselves.

The story of Kate brings out many uncertainties about life with which, I'm sure, many of the readers can identify -- her above-mentioned search for direction in her life being the most prevalent. It also astutely describes many things felt and experienced by young children -- using Lucien, the son of her paramour, as its focus. Lucien is tortured and troubled by what he sees as coldness and seperation in the lives of his parents. His father admits on one occasion to Kate (and this is very telling) that they try to treat him as 'a small adult' -- not a very realistic (or healthy) way to raise a child.

Hooper has taken on a difficult and challenging topic/theme for her first novel -- it doesn't quite succeed, but that doesn't mean she's not a fine writer with a lot of potential. I'd be very interested to see what she does next.

Never judge a book by the blurb on its back cover. Chloe Hooper's debut novel "A Child's Book Of True Crime (CBTC)" promised much - it was even shortlisted for the Orange Prize - but delivered little. That's because the author couldn't decide what she wanted the novel to be, a stylish murder mystery with an alternative ending and one that cleverly uses the past to mirror the present, or an ode to the nature of violence, a condition inherited from Australia's history as a penal colony. Written in an uncomfortably choppy prose, the novel makes a frustratingly uneven read.

As a murder mystery or psychological thriller, CBTC fails on two levels. First, you don't get any resolution to the "who murdered Ellie Siddell" poser from the past, though luckily you do get to find out whether Kate is letting her own mounting paranoia get to her head or if Veronica is really out to repeat the true crime she is writing about with her rival. But that's not all. Readers will feel doubly cheated when they discover at the end that the Kate/Thomas/Veronica triangle is really a sideshow and that the spotlight of the story is on Lucien. This makes Kate's defiant show of concern for Lucien's welfare as played out in the closing scenes particularly unconvincing and difficult to understand. Up until then, she was only afraid for her own life.

CBTC reads much better as an ode to violence as a condition inherited from the past that still haunts the present long after the original settlers have passed on. There is a lurking sense of violence bubbling beneath the surface that runs throughout the novel. Even if the farmer who helped Kate fix her broken car didn't turn out to be a pervert, there is the verbal violence heard spasmodically by Kate in the background to remind us. The psychological violence inflicted by the philandering Thomas and his chilly true crime novelist wife on their son Lucien by treating him not like a nine year old boy but as a "short adult" is truly horrific. Even the storybook animals in the imaginary story are gentler to their own kind and that's the rub.

Chloe Hooper was working with great material but she lost it when she couldn't quite decide on the genre she was writing in. CBTC fell between two stools and that's a shame. A courageous but failed experiment.

I was really intrigued when I read the first review of this book. It sounded mysterious and juicy and interesting. And then I read it. I got half way through it and didn't want to pick it back up. The main character was annoying. I couldn't like her. I couldn't get involved with her plight. In fact, I wanted to read more about the other minor characters. They were much more interesting. Unfortunately, I had to finish reading this book for my book club. Otherwise, I probably would have just put it down and never finished it. By the way, none of the members of the club really liked this book either.