Anne Perry

The Murder of the Century

By: Peter Graham

Narrated by: Eric Brooks

The spellbinding true story of Anne Perry, her friend Pauline Parker, and the brutal crime they committed in the name of friendship.

On June 22, 1954, teenage friends Juliet Hulme - better known as best-selling mystery writer Anne Perry - and Pauline Parker went for a walk in a New Zealand park with Pauline’s mother, Honora. Half an hour later, the girls returned alone, claiming that Pauline’s mother had had an accident. But when Honora Parker was found in a pool of blood with the brick used to bludgeon her to death close at hand, Juliet and Pauline were quickly arrested, and later confessed to the killing. Their motive? A plan to escape to the United States to become writers, and Honora’s determination to keep them apart. Their incredible story made shocking headlines around the world and would provide the subject for Peter Jackson’s Academy Award-nominated film, Heavenly Creatures.

A sensational trial followed, with speculations about the nature of the girls’ relationship and possible insanity playing a key role. Among other things, Parker and Hulme were suspected of lesbianism, which was widely considered to be a mental illness at the time. This mesmerizing book offers a brilliant account of the crime and ensuing trial and shares dramatic revelations about the fates of the young women after their release from prison. With penetrating insight, this thorough analysis applies modern psychology to analyze the shocking murder that remains one of the most interesting cases of all time.

©2013 Peter Graham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

WORST NARRATOR EVER

great book, but who's the sniveling reader who is doing just that-reading out loud, but not in the way that a narrator should, again with varying voices for separate characters, and without sounding like a 9 year old reading our loud to his classmates in monotonous yet still haltingly. great book, still, if you can get past the narration.

Good Story, Poor performance

While the story contains details of the story I have never seen in print, it spends too much time on characters secondary to the story. The performance is subpar. The reader pauses in awkward places and has a rather monotonous delivery. It was difficult to listen to the story for stretches of time due to the poor vocal quality.

Impressive research, great story, worth the effort

Would you listen to Anne Perry again? Why?

I am going to listen to this again. The narrator did take some getting used to at first -- I seriously thought about returning this audiobook at first, but the story was so captivating that I changed my mind. After the first hour or so, the narration didn't bother me at all. I wanted to get the audiobook because I saw Heavenly Creatures a long time ago and the story stayed with me. I have read one or two of Anne Perry's books -- before learning about her past -- and was baffled by their popularity. At least now I understand how her writing got to be so insufferable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Anne Perry?

There were quite a few. I enjoyed the psychological theories and speculations about the two girls, but what will stay with me is the description of the life that Hilary has made for herself.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

There were some rather odd pauses, as if he had run out of breath in the middle of a sentence, or mistaken a comma for a period. He also struggled with the pronunciation of some names and seemed to be sounding them out. (It was better than mispronouncing them, though.)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

None particularly --- none of the main characters in this book are very likeable. Pauline, Juliet, and their parents aren't people I would have cared to spend an evening with. Hilary Nathan, however, does still seem to be punishing herself for what she did, unlike Anne Perry who seems to have shrugged it off. Doesn't seem fair.

Any additional comments?

I love good history, and long, complicated true stories with lots of character and detail. This this book fits the bill on both counts. By the time that I had finished listening, I had learned even more than I wanted or needed to know about this case. I am going to listen to it again and have recommended it to my true-crime loving friends and to history buffs. Whoever changed the title to Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century ought to be fired. The original title made much more sense than the new one, which is both crass and misleading.

Interesting story awful narration

The story is very interesting, yet gruesome. But due to the narrator I’m having a tough time getting through the story and may not be able to finish. The narration is so slow and dull. He’s terrible, the worst I’ve ever heard on an audiobook. It’s like sitting through a class with a very dull professor. He has no intonation in his speech and annunciates like he is speaking to a class of small children.

Definitely Listen at Higher Speed

The narrator made it a struggle to get through this book. In one moment he is fine and pleasant to listen to, then the next he is robotic and stiff, to the next where he is talking as if he is teaching a room of 3 year olds. I had to listen to it at 1.80x speed to be able to handle him. The story is a good one but they have way, way too many unnecessary details. I don't need to know all the stops a bus makes or all the past jobs of someone who worked in a shop one of the girls went to. If they cut out over two hours of fluff material and got a better narrator this would have definitely been a five star review.