Enjoy For Free Anne Perry And The Murder Of The Century Depicted By Peter Graham Released Through Text

who has ever read one my reviews knows that I dont do “spoilers”, I will however, say that Peter Graham did a fantastic job of making a hotpot of fact and fiction, This “crime of the century” had everything thrown into the hotpot including teenage angst, fantasy, roleplaying, questionable sexuality, wealth, poverty, affairs and most importantly a brutal senseless murder.


I finished this book greatly appreciating the authors willingness to tackle such a troubling chapter in New Zealands history, I also finished this book with mixed emotions about the way the whole crime, investigation and subsequent trial were handled, Although both Pauline and Juliet were under the care of “behavior health specialist”, I cant help but think that the whole torrid tale would have been viewed today by a jury as well as the media very differently.
There would have at least been a Facebook page to support the girls! Although both girls served some time in prison, lets face it, They got away with murder, After serving

their time each went on with their lives, One lives a more affluent life as mystery writer Anne Perry, While the other lives under the assumed name of Hilary Nathan, Are they remorseful Are they happy Those are questions that only they can answer,
Most Americans indeed, most people of this generation probably know this story only from Peter Jackson's early film, Heavenly Creatures, which was not only his breakthrough film but also that of Kate Winslet.
This is the story of the ParkerHulme murder, in which a pair of New Zealand teenagers killed the mother of one due, probably, to their adolescent infatuation with each other and a certain amount of mental disorder.


The American edition has a more Americafriendly title i, e. , like the first Harry Potter book, they thought it necessary to dumb down the title for we colonials: Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century, which is overstating it just a little we 'Mericans know the Murder of the Century was committed by O.
J. Simpson, don't we.

This is the first nonfiction treatment of the subject since, and the first that tells the whole story from the girls' friendship through the murder, the trial, the SPOILER ALERT imprisonment and their eventual release, not to mention the girls' lives afterwards.
Juliet Hulme became the Victorian mystery author Anne Perry and Pauline Parker became a recluse,

How it all happened is detailed in a swiftmoving narrative by lawyer and truecrime write Peter Graham, and is highly recommended for fans of true crime "literature," and of Peter Jackson's movie.
Written by a New Zealand lawyer who was a child at the time of the most famous murder trial in New Zealands history, this is a thorough examination of the case from all perspectives.
The premeditated murder of a woman by heryear old daughter and the daughtersyear old friend is shocking to learn about, To be able to analyze a murder many decades after it occurred makes for a very interesting history of how the lives of the families involved were affected.
Several historical fiction books have been written and a famous movie titled Heavenly Creatures staring Kate Winslet produced by Prince Edward of England brought the court case to the attention of people around the globe.
If you enjoy reading about court cases you will find this book worth the time, During my teens I was obsessed with Heavenly Creatures before largely forgetting about it for two decades, So when I discovered there was a book I couldn't wait to get stuck in! Whilst much of the detail will be familiar to fans of the film, the sections about their time in prison and life following release were extremely interesting.
I find it fascinating that Parker and Hulme, once so close, have gone on to live such contrasting lives, I must admit it sent chills through me to learn about and see pictures of the mural Pauline had most likely painted, so many years later,

My only gripe with this book is that there is too much detail about minor figures, I wasn't particularly interested in the backgrounds of expert witnesses in the trial, I also found a couple of chapters about the early life of both sets of parents a little dull, I would also have been interested to read more extracts from Pauline's diary, if such material is still available, That being said, I wholeheartedly recommend this comprehensive account of a fascinating case, In staids New Zealand two teenage girls committed a murder that gained worldwide notoriety and which Peter Jackson would make into the movie Heavenly Creatures in.


Juliet Hulme was the emotionally neglected daughter of well to do British immigrants, Her father Henry was a respected, but odd, scientist who came out to New Zealand to be rector of Canterbury University College,

Pauline Parker was the daughter of Bert and Honorah Rieper who were not well off and took in boarders to make ends meet,

Juliet and Pauline struck up an unlikely friendship at Christchurch Girls' High School, Both of them had suffered illness earlier in life that meant they had to sit out physical education classes, Their friendship developed into a shared obsession with writing about fantasy worlds which began to impinge on reality, They became intensely dependent on each other and there is strong evidence to suggest their friendship developed into a lesbian sexual relationship,

When the time came for Juliet's family to return to England, Juliet and Pauline could not bear the thought of separation, They became convinced that Pauline's mother was the only person stopping Pauline from going with the Hulmes and decided to kill her, They lured Honorah to an isolated park on the pretence of going for a walk and bashed her to death with a brick wrapped in a stocking,

The murder shocked Christchurch and the trial was played out in front of jampacked public galleries, As if matricide and lesbianism weren't enough to titillate the public, two more salacious tidbits emerged during the trial proceedings,

It was revealed that Juliet's mother Hilda had been having a love affair with Bill Perry who she had moved into the homestead she shared with her husband Henry.
Hilda had been blatantly sleeping with Bill right under Henry's nose and Henry had accepted this, Pauline's parents turned out to never have been married, After being viciously murdered, Honorah now had the indignity of having her name changed post mortem to Honorah Parker, and Pauline became Pauline Parker,

Peter Graham has written a incredibly readable and interesting account of this case which continues to fascinate all these years later, The most damning evidence in the trial was Pauline's diary which also provides much of the material for this book, It shows the obsessive, unbalanced mental state of the two girls, It is almost certain that Juliet also kept a diary, but that her parents destroyed it before the police could find it, It is a pity that we cannot see the events directly through Juliet's eyes, but the view we get through Pauline's is sad, chilling and fascinating, Pauline's diary entry on the morning of the murder is headed 'The Day of the Happy Event',

There was no doubt that the girls committed the murder so the defence could only try and prove that they were not sane at the time.
There is no doubt that their thought processes were unhinged, but equally no doubt that they knew that what they were doing was wrong,

Peter Graham sources information from a number of people and places, although not from Juliet and Pauline themselves, On their release from prison both girls left New Zealand for the United Kingdom, although they never had any contact again, The success of Peter Jackson's movie led to the discovery that Juliet was the crime writer Anne Perry, and that Pauline had changed her name to Hilary Nathan and was living in the UK.
Peter Graham ends his book by providing follow up information on their lives in present times, He also gives an account of the other people involved in the trial, many of whom ended up having quite tragic lives,

All in all this is a very good book documenting a sensational incident in New Zealand's crime history,


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