Regarded as the MURDER OF THE CENTURY in the middle of a century that would see truly greater crimes, I opened this book eager to take the pulse of those tumultuous times. All too often this book flat-lined. It struggled as a history to find a point of view and seldom found a dramatic drive and instead just drifted. The author discusses in the forward that learning of this murder trial made enough of an impression on him that he immediately wanted to write about it—but then apparently life got in the way and he didn’t get around to it for over 30 more years. I squinted with some concern when I read that and that’s how the book felt. Something interesting would happen. Then it just seemed to lay there for 30 years. The resulting book feels more like just the notes he collected rather than a narrative designed to bring this history to life.

When I first heard about this 1954 murder on a podcast, I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t familiar with it already. Famous mystery writer Anne Perry when she was a teen and living under her real name in New Zealand took part in a brutal murder—helping her best friend kill her friend’s mother. Covered internationally at the time of the murder and then again when Ann Perry’s identity and past were uncovered at least partly due to the release of the murder inspired movie HEAVENLY CREATURES, I knew nothing about it. I do know a lot about it now. The author, despite the passage of time and likely passing of a lot of memories, did gather a lot of information. It is clearly written the way directions on a map are clear but a map doesn’t tell me much about a city. The editors must have sensed this lack of inertia as they present the murder in great detail up front as if trying to hook me rather than draw me in. Still, the story does fascinate despite the presentation. Much of what we now know of psychology and child rearing put an entirely different spin on what spun these girls out of control. The author does bring this up but only at the end as almost an addendum.

A well written history makes you feel like you have spent some time in the past and wonder how it connects to the present world. While this book did little to make me wonder about comparisons, real life has presented an example. The teenage girls in Wisconsin who stabbed their friend 19 times in an attempt to impress a fictional character called Slender Man bear a striking resemblance in character and tone to Anne Perry and her childhood friend.