Now Reading

Just started “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. Heard good things about it so if it lives up to its reputation it should be good.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 – Sue Townsend

“The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾” is, as the title suggests, a diary written by the fictional character of Adrian Mole. He writes about things you can imagine a lot of teenage boys worrying about even now, the size of his “thing”, spots and girls. He also writes about his parents rocky marriage, including his Mum leaving the family to live in Sheffield with her lover, Mr Lucas, for a while. He has a paper round to pay off the school bully and in his spare time volunteers to help out an old man, Bert Baxter, with odd jobs around his house.

I first read “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾” when I was staying at my Aunty’s and had finished the books I had taken with me. I went up into their attic and found my cousin’s battered old copy of this and read it in a few hours. So when I went shopping in Asda a few weeks ago and needed cheering up I took a swing down the book aisle, never fails to help my mood, and as soon as I saw this 30th anniversary edition I just had to have it. After reading a few true crime books in a row I thought it was time for something a little bit more light hearted and Adrian Mole certainly fits the bill. Even thought it’s obviously set in the 1980’s with Adrian talking about watching the Royal Wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles I can completely relate, especially with the recent Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, his complaint that he was sick of seeing the royal wedding within a few days of it happening certainly rings true for me!

I love all the characters in this, even Barry Kent, the school bully, I think they’re extremely well written, although obviously with it being a diary we only get Adrian’s viewpoint on them. We don’t know if Pandora really is as beautiful as he says or if Bert is as lazy and foul mouthed as Adrian describes him but we have to trust Adrian’s opinion. I love how much of a hypochondriac he is, calling the Doctor out for the most minor ailments and his reactions when the Doctor is less than sympathetic. I also love when he tries to paint his room black as he is too old for Noddy wallpaper but after 3 coats the bell on Noddy’s hat is still showing through and he has to resort to colouring them in with a felt tip pen. I think most of us can relate to needing a change in our bedrooms as we grow up. That’s what I think is so great about Adrian Mole, probably about 99% of the population can relate to him in some way, obviously I’ve never been a teenage boy but I can still relate to the issues he has. I did wonder as I was reading it how the diary might have differed if it was written today with our modern obsessions with social networking sites. An interview with Sue Townsend in the back of this edition of the book suggests that Adrian would have still kept a secret diary, he wouldn’t have wanted his whole life to be available online, this doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have also had a Facebook account and maybe even a blog. I can imagine him writing a blog about how intellectual he is and what books he has read. He might even have put some of his poems on it!

Reading this has made me want to read more of Adrian Mole’s diaries, I’ll definitely be putting them on my wish list!

Now Reading

I have just started reading “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4” by Sue Townsend. I remember reading my cousin’s copy of this when I was younger and really enjoyed it so when I saw the 30th anniversary edition in Asda the other day I just had to have it. Also needed a break from the crime books so thought this would fit nicely.

Columbine: A True Crime Story – Jeff Kass

On 20th April 1999 two students at Columbine High School would carry out, at that point, the worst school shooting in America. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people that day before committing suicide.

I’m sure most people reading this blog post will know the story of Columbine so I’m not really going to summarise Kass’ book.

I was 14 when it happened, just starting to pay more attention to current affairs and could not believe what I was seeing on the news. Obviously gun laws in the UK are a lot more strict but it just seemed crazy to me that these 2 kids had gone into their school and managed to kill so many people. Obviously we now know that, horrific as it was, the death toll could have been much higher had their plan worked. Bombs were set in the cafeteria, if they had detonated as planned hundreds would have died. They had left bombs in their cars, designed to kill emergency services responding to the attack, fortunately these did not detonate either. What is also clear from Kass’ book is that these were not rich kids, they funded the attack with part time jobs in a pizza place amongst others, I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if they had access to more money.

Kass’ book covers a little of the history of both the Harris and Klebold families, goes into Eric and Dylan’s earlier life and obviously covers their lives and friendship right up to 20th April 1999. He also looks at the issue of blame, obviously this is a book review and I don’t want to get too much into blame here, obviously we know Eric and Dylan were responsible for the attack but Kass looks at whether they could have been stopped, did the families or law enforcement miss the signs. Personally, I don’t believe the families could have known. I know what I can be like with my parents and if I don’t want them to know something I will do my very best to make sure they don’t find out. I think it’s easy to sit back and say the parents should have seen this coming but it’s not like Eric Harris was walking into the house with a gun under his arm and saying “Hi Mom, just gonna keep this in my bedroom until it’s time for me to use it to kill a load of people”. Both Dylan and Eric were very clever and extremely deceptive. Only months before Columbine they convinced the Diversion programme that they were changed people and fit to be released from the programme early. There were mistakes made by law enforcement but I don’t think anybody could have predicted what they were going to do.

Kass has done a lot of research to write this book, obviously over the last 13 years a lot of information about Columbine has been released to the public so he’s had a lot to go through. I found the book very sensitively written, towards the victims families and the Harris’ and Klebold’s. At the end of they day, I don’t believe you can punish the families for what those 2 boys did, if they knew for a fact they were going to do this and did nothing then that is a different story but there is no evidence that this is the case. As I said before I started reading I did have a fair bit of knowledge about Columbine from my own research over the years and also from Dave Cullen’s book about the subject and I wouldn’t say Kass has really added a great deal to that but it was very well researched and written and also it was interesting to learn more about Michael Shoels, whose son Isaiah was the sole black victim of Columbine, and his campaign to raise awareness of school shootings and the causes behind them. To hear of him going to Virginia Tech in 2007 after the shooting there just days before the 8th anniversary of Columbine was both heartbreaking and heartwarming, that he could put aside his own grief to try and help others was inspiring to see.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interesting in true crime or even just the Columbine case.

Now Reading

Sticking with my true crime mood I am now reading “Columbine: A True Crime Story” by Jeff Kass. I have previously read Dave Cullen’s book about Columbine and read stuff on the Internet and obviously I remember it happening so intrigued as to what Kass’ book will say.

John Follain – Death in Perugia

“Death in Perugia” is an account of the Meredith Kercher case, detailing from the time Meredith arrived in Perugia right up to the acquittal of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox. Firstly, I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but considering the book is about the murder of Meredith Kercher the picture on the cover is of Amanda Knox crying shortly after hearing her conviction had been overturned. I worry that in all the press and the attempts to write about what happened the fact that a young girl is dead, and was murdered in an extremely brutal fashion, has been kind of lost along the way.

I don’t think I need to summarise the book in any great detail, it starts with Meredith’s, and later Amanda’s, arrival in Perugia and details how they got on and what life was like in the cottage they shared with 2 Italian women. It goes on to tell of Meredith’s last few hours, then details the discovery of her body, the investigation, trial and eventual conviction of Guede, Knox and Sollecito. It then concludes with the appeal hearing and acquittal of Knox and Sollecito.

I don’t want to get into a lengthy debate about the guilt or innocence of Knox and Sollecito as the Prosecution in Italy are currently launching an appeal against their acquittal, I still have my doubts as to their innocence, although I will admit I am less sure as to the level of their involvement as I previously was and I’m open to reading more into this case over the coming months as time allows.

I think this book was very well written, Follain has clearly had access to all parties as the book contains excerpts from Knox’s diaries and also comments from Meredith’s friends and family. He has certainly done his research. I think when it comes to books of this nature it is easy to try and impress your own agenda on the story but I thought this was quite an unbiased account. He did not draw conclusions as to whether the acquittal was just or not and leaves that up to the reader. I feel this is the best way to go in cases such as this as obviously only the person/people actually involved in Meredith’s murder know what happened that night and it is easy with hindsight for me to say, for example “how could Knox have had a shower in the cottage after finding the door open and blood in the bathroom?” as obviously I know at that time Meredith was lying dead in her bedroom but I can concede that your first thought on finding a small amount of blood in the bathroom would not be that someone could be dead. A favourite saying of mine is the old quote “when you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras” in other words, unless there is other evidence, assume the ordinary rather than the unusual. As for the behaviour of Knox and Sollecito after the murder, who can say how they would react to finding out their flatmate has been murdered unless it has happened and who can say what is the right or wrong way to behave when you are grieving? I think Rudy Guede, currently the only person convicted of and serving a sentence for Meredith’s murder, knows more than he has told the Courts. Personally, I believe there was more than one person present at the time she was killed and therefore Guede must know who they are.

Follain’s book has certainly given me a lot to think about and several times had me checking the internet to gain a better understanding of some of the facts in this case. I love books that make me think and get me to research topics to gain a better understanding and this book has certainly done that.

The people I feel for in this case are Meredith’s family and friends. As I said previously, I think they have been sort of pushed to the back in this case, I remember a lot of the press around the time of the trial focussed on “Foxy Knoxy”, and I think it is important to remember Meredith’s family and friends are still trying to piece their lives together without her and are currently unsure as to whether justice has been done. If Knox and Sollecito have any compassion for the Kercher family they will disappear from the limelight now they have been granted their freedom.

I’m open to suggestions on further reading on this case and would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about this intriguing case.

Now Reading

Just started “Death in Perugia” by John Follain. Described as the definitive account of the Meredith Kercher case from her murder to the acquittal of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox. Personally, I think the verdict in the appeal was wrong, I believe Sollecito and Knox were guilty, but I’m keeping an open mind and it will be interesting to read more into this case.

John Dillinger – Dary Matera

“John Dillinger” is, as you would expect from that title, a book about John Dillinger, one of the first “celebrity criminals” and arguably one of the main reasons behind the formation of the FBI.

Dillinger was seen as the most notorious of all the bank robbers in the Depression-era Midwest, his gang being active during the time of infamous characters such as Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

The book starts off describing Dillinger’s childhood and early criminal escapades, which eventually landed him in Indiana State Prison in Michigan City after his Father convinced him to plead guilty to a robbery he committed on a local grocer. Angry at his treatment by the Police he promised he would be “the meanest bastard you ever saw” on his release from Michigan City. Whilst in prison he met up with future Dillinger gang members, “Handsome” Harry Pierpont and Russell Clark.

On his release from prison on parole in 1933 Dillinger promised to help mastermind an escape for his friends Harry Pierpont, Russell Clark, Charles Makley, Edward Shouse, Harry Copeland, James Clark, John Hamilton and Walter Dietrich. After setting in to motion this escape plan he was then imprisoned himself in the Allen County jail in Lima after committing a bank robbery in Bluffton, Ohio. Keen to return the favour, 3 of the escapees from Michigan City arrived in Lima claiming to be there to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When Sherriff Sarber became suspicious and asked for ID he was shot and beaten unconscious before the gang liberated Dillinger from his cell.

Dillinger and his gang committed several bank robberies over the years and killed 13 lawmen between them, although Dillinger is only known to have killed one Police Officer during his entire criminal life time.

The Dillinger gangs exploits brought them to the attention of the J Edgar Hoover and his fledgling agency, which would eventually become the FBI. Hoover was incensed by the ease in which Dillinger appeared to evade capture.

Eventually Dillinger was caught and held in Lake County Jail in Crown Point, while the rest of his gang were also caught and sent to Ohio to stand trial for the murder of Sherrif Sarber. It was during his time in Crown Point that the famous picture was taken of him with his arm around Prosecutor Robert Estill. Lake County Jail wasn’t going to hold Dillinger for long and he eventually busted out using a wooden gun that he claimed to have carved himself out of a washboard. He made off in Sheriff Lillian Holley’s own car, adding insult to injury.

Dillinger continued to evade capture, although Hoover’s men, led by Agent Melvin Purvis, did nearly catch him hiding in a lodge called Little Bohemia with Baby Face Nelson and Homer VanMeter. The botched operation at Little Bohemia, during which Hoover’s agents fired on innocent bystanders, killing one and injuring 2 more, nearly finished off his agency and made Hoover more determined than ever to catch Dillinger. Hoover’s embarrassment was compounded when it was discovered that Dillinger had dropped off his girlfriend, Billie Frechette, at a bar and was still in the vicinity when she was arrested by Hoover’s men.

With a bounty on his head it was very difficult for Dillinger to hide anywhere and Hoover increased the pressure by prosecuting anyone who was caught harbouring Dillinger or any of his other gang members.

After an unsuccessful attempt at surgery to change his face Dillinger took shelter with a local Madam he knew in Chicago, Anna Sage, and a Billie Frechette lookalike, Polly Hamilton. Feeling he could trust Anna and somewhat using Polly as a distraction from the absence of his beloved Billie, Dillinger began to relax, even going with Polly to the local Police building when she went to register as a waitress.

Unfortunately, his trust in Anna Sage was extremely misplaced and she used her knowledge of Dillinger’s whereabouts to try and get herself out of an immigration problem, contacting Purvis and informing him that herself, Polly Hamilton and Dillinger would be attending the cinema and he would be able to arrest him outside. Although Sage was actually identified by Purvis and the other agents as wearing an orange skirt she became known as “the woman in red” and as Dillinger exited the Biograph theatre with Hamilton and Sage, the feds moved in. It is believed Dillinger attempted to get his weapon and was shot by the agents.

I already had some knowledge of Dillinger’s criminal activities from reading Bryan Burrough’s book, “Public Enemies”, which covered Dillinger as well as many of the other criminals of the day, including Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and the Barker-Karpis gang. Dary Matera’s book, however is much more detailed. Written as a biography, covering Dillinger’s entire life and not just his criminal activities, you get to know the man behind the legend as it were. His sources are impeccable and you get the impression he has really done his research to make sure the facts in the book are as accurate as they can be. Obviously record keeping in the 1930s wasn’t the same as it is now and he also mentions that several banks would claim to have been robbed by Dillinger and his associates in order to cover up their own embezzlement. One member of Dillinger’s gang, John Hamilton, was reported to have been involved in a robbery after he was already dead so that just shows how sketchy some of the information can be.

Some of the pictures may not be for the faint hearted, there are several of Dillinger’s body after he was killed, pictures the like of which would not be released to the media these days were common place back then.

Personally, I find that whole era very exciting, back when outlaws were more like Robin Hood figures, stealing from the rich banks when times got hard. I don’t think Matera glamorised the crimes at all, he details how dangerous it was and how many people were injured or killed during the course of these crimes, however it’s a fact that bank robberies and other such crimes were common place in this era with many different individuals and criminal gangs being active throughout America.

It was interesting to read about how many times Dillinger managed to visit family members without being seen and really doesn’t paint a flattering picture of Hoover’s beloved agency. I agree with Matera when he says if Dillinger had evaded capture much longer we could have seen the end of the FBI before they even really got started.

Matera did an excellent job in compiling this work covering Dillinger’s entire life and laid to rest some myths about him, such as a picture of Dillinger’s dead body draped in a sheet, which allegedly showed him to have an enormous manhood, it was actually Dillinger’s arm causing the sheet to tent at a rather unfortunate spot. There are people who say Dillinger may still be alive and the person murdered was a patsy, set up by the mob to take the fall so Dillinger could disappear and live his life in peace. I think these conspiracy theorists are in the same vein as the people who say Kennedy was killed by a second gunman behind the grassy knoll and that Elvis is still alive. There are always going to be theories, doesn’t mean they are all right. I’ll take facts over half baked theories any day of the week.

All in all I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in 1930s America and the criminal gangs that ruled during the Depression.

Now Reading

Just started “John Dillinger” by Dary Matera. I’m fascinated with the whole era when Dillinger was running riot but especially interested in him. Really looking forward to learning more.

Justin Cronin – The Passage

“The Passage” is predominantly a supernatural tale of survival. The American army, with the help of Dr Jonas Lear, has been working on developing a breed of “super soldiers”, with the help of a vampire-like virus that was discovered in the amazon. The first test subjects, known as The Twelve, were death row inmates that nobody would miss. They were convinced to sign themselves over to the test programme by FBI agent Brad Wolgast, a somewhat lonely man who is grieving the death of his daughter, Eva, and the subsequent breakdown of his marriage. He has just convinced the last of these Twelve, Anthony Carter, a man who insists he has been wrongfully convicted of murdering a woman he did odd jobs for, when he is told to go and pick up a 6 year old girl from a convent. The girl, Amy, has been left in the care of a Nun, Lacey, at the convent by her Mother, a prostitute who had recently killed a customer who had become violent. Agent Wolgast and his partner, Agent Doyle, collect Amy and make their way to the test centre, however Wolgast is clearly conflicted about this and several times considers taking Amy and running away with her. Before they can make it to the centre they are picked up by some local Police for kidnapping Amy from the convent and the Army has to send someone to extract them, who in the process kills everyone in the Police Station.

Once at the centre Wolgast and Doyle are separated from each other and Amy until eventually Wolgast is asked to sit with Amy as she has been given a virus and is very ill.

Meanwhile in the containment rooms where The Twelve are kept the men responsible for cleaning up and keeping an eye on them have been suffering from increasingly strange dreams and hearing voices in their heads until they simultaneously let all the creatures who used to be men out of their cells and they escape from the centre, killing anyone and everyone in their path.

Wolgast manages to escape with Amy and is met by Lacey, who says she was led by God to Amy, and Doyle who aid their escape.

Wolgast and Amy lie low in a mountain cabin for many months, occasional trips to a local store revealing a mysterious “virus” is sweeping the country. When one of these trips finds the owner of the store dead Wolgast realises they are in trouble and tells Amy if anything happens she is to run and not look back. Whilst they have been hiding away he has noticed that Amy is different since her virus, stronger but with an aversion to sunlight. After having to kill a man who stumbles across the cabin and is clearly already infected with this virus that is decimating the rest of the country there is a nuclear explosion nearby.

The action then jumps ahead into the future to the Colony, a small place in California that has been highly fortified and surrounded by lights to protect the inhabitants from the “virals” as they call the vampire-like creatures that appear to be everywhere. We hear the stories of several of the inhabitants of this place and get a feel as to what life is like there until during a salvage mission outside of the colony a group are attacked by virals and one of the group, Peter, is saved by a mysterious girl. Days later this girl turns up at the colony and during the melee a viral manages to breach the walls, killing several people, and the girl is injured. Whilst she is recovering in the infirmary Peter and some of his friends discover she has a computer chip embedded in the back of her neck. On removing this chip and examining it, Michael, an engineer at the colony responsible for keeping the lights on to protect them from the virals, discovers the girl is called Amy and she is over 100 years old. He also finds a transmission over the airwaves from Colorado, “if you find her, bring her here”. Peter and Michael realise it must be about Amy and, along with several other members of the colony, they decide to set off and look for the source of this transmission.

They run into many problems along the way but also manage to rescue Peter’s brother, Theo, from another colony of people, similar to their own but instead of walls and lights to keep the virals out these people make a sacrifice to one of The Twelve, Babcock, every month and Theo, who they all thought had died after being taken whilst out on the same mission where Peter met Amy, is due to be the next sacrifice.

Towards the end of the book Peter and Amy discover how to stop the virals once and for all and the group splits up with some heading back to the colony to check on the people they left behind and some going on to a safe haven they have heard of in Texas, with the group that headed to the colony planning on joining the others in Texas later. This is where the book leaves us, with the next instalment in the trilogy, “The Twelve”, due out later this year.

“The Passage” was another book my Dad recommended, he gave me the book to read towards the end of last year and has been pestering me since to find out if I’d started it! As usual, he really came through with this recommendation. I loved it. I’ve never read anything by Justin Cronin before, to be honest I hadn’t even heard of him, but I really enjoyed “The Passage” and am definitely looking forward to the next part. It ends on such a cliffhanger, I was practically shouting at the book, “No! You can’t end there!” I love a book that leaves you begging for more, I couldn’t wait to finish it to find out how it ended but at the same time I didn’t want to finish it because then it would be over, does anyone ever feel like that about books? Anyway, my only gripe is the missing span of time between the outbreak of the virus and when we first see the colony. I’m hoping this is maybe covered in the rest of the trilogy as although the history of the colony is touched on I’m curious as to what happened in the rest of the country during that time.

The characters are very well written, with the people from the colony having developed their own words for things over the years. I liked the contrast between the 3 main groups of survivors we see, the people at the colony are leading fairly peaceful lives, they have walls and lights to keep the virals out and they kill any that try to get in but otherwise don’t bother with them. The people Peter and his group run into in the haven however have no walls or lights and very few weapons but don’t seem to be bothered by the virals, of course we find out this is because they make a ritual sacrifice of 2 humans and 4 cows once a month. Finally, the expeditionaries are as close to an army as still exists in this post virus world, they have a town set up in Texas and they send groups out looking for survivors and killing “dracs” as they call them. I can’t say which group is going about things the best way but I find it hard to agree with the people at the haven who are sacrificing the few to save the many.

Cronin has done an excellent job at drawing the reader into the story and then leaving you desperate for more. The book ends on such a cliffhanger I cannot wait for the next instalment! A different take on the vampire story than some others but scarily believable in places and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend it.