A Child's Book of True Crime

by Chloe Hooper

Book Overview

With the dark suspense of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and the frank and shocking eroticism of Josephine Hart, this debut novel tells the story of a young teacher's illicit affair and obsession... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743225120
• ISBN13: 9780743225120
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Unsatisfying and boring

One of the most unsatisfying books I have ever read. Most of the story is written in flash backs or remembered conversations rather than the main character actually DOING things. And when she does have moments of action it provides almost nothing to the story. The main character (all the characters really) is so unlikable and constantly making the wrong choice so that it becomes irritating and hard to root for her. I found myself skipping paragraphs out of boredom, it is not thrilling or engaging in the least.

A writer of great promise

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 agaiinst 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 protaganist 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.

Disappointing...better as an allegory than a murder mystery

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.

Tricky

The title of this novel is a bit deceptive, because it does not give you a clue as to what is in store for you between the covers. Yes, there is a child's book of true crime in there--but the larger part of this novel is a psychological psuedo-thriller. Kate Byrne, an elementary school teacher in Tasmania, is having an affair with Thomas, the father of one of her students. Thomas' wife, Veronica, has just written, with much hoopla, a true crime story. This story covers the murder and subsequent mysterious disappearance of two women several years before, in Tasmania, who weer involved in a triangle which mirrors the Kate-Thomas-Veronica mess. The novel is narrated by Kate, who becomes more and more obsessed with Veronica's book and more and more convinced that she, too, will meet a terrible fate, perhaps at Veronica's hands. This novel is clever, smart and surprising. Enjoy.

Fear of adulthood?

Well, this book certainly has the right ingredients to make readers pay attention: adultery, murder, fear, suspense, mystery, families, youth and a clever balancing of a sophisticated ironical approach to tales of (true) crime and fear with all the suspense and thrill of the genre. Kate Byrne is a young school teacher playing at having an affair with one of her student's father. Wonderful depiction of her mixed emotions both as the other woman and as a woman still very close to childhood, and the suspense is masterfully built up and twisted throughout the novel. I'm looking forward to her next book already!

Innocence Lost in Tasmania.

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.