I read this one in a few short hours, at a small 176 pages it whizzes by, which is a good thing.
I have to admit I was somewhat confused by the book at first. Was this a true story, or not? Perhaps I've been living on the moon or something. I got my answer when reading the first few pages (am I the only one that always reads EVERY page of a book? Doubtful).
On the back of the title page it states: "The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening."
So there you have it - it's a work of fiction.
But wait. It's not. A quick Google search found me this:
(I hope I can be forgiven a hotlink in this case - and for using The Daily Mail!)
Hm - someone dropped the ball at NEL on this one. ;D
Anyway, on to the book itself. As a story told by the wife it reads rather strangely. She credits two Fleet Street journalists for doing all the research, and I tend to think there might have been some ghost-writing going on, if only because there are very few really
personal things mentioned. This is pretty much a (somewhat mangled) chronology of The Beast and his actions.
It beggars belief what went on. Jersey is an island 9 miles long, and 5 miles wide, yet it took more than a decade to find a
local who was committing these crimes. They had enough DNA evidence to catch the guy - but alas, this was before testing could be done. I found it rather frustrating to read at times because I kept saying to myself: Surely they can tell something by the guys hair sample?!?!?!. But then, they didn't have cell phones either. ;D
Dare I also say that there is some padding here. The criminal, Ted, claimed he had links with Gilles De Rais, a child murderer from 1432. The author wants to discuss this - which is fair enough. But before getting down to the nitty gritty of it - we get nine pages of a rambling history of the fellow. This followed by a further six pages where we see some of the similarities. So fifteen pages in all - which is a bit much to be honest. It also comes at the end of the book, stalling its conclusion somewhat.
There is also a "Black Magic" angle here, but it's very under-developed and offers no real evidence. There's also talk of a "secret society", but if there was such a thing then it's still very secret.
The book also mentions that Ted was a bit of a ladies man. But when I saw the picture linked above I was left a little perturbed - if that's the case, I'm Clark Gable!
All joking aside this was clearly a terrible case (or series of cases). It's made worse by the incompetence of the local police force (there are two distinct sets on the island, neither of which seemed to have much of a clue).
As you might know, there was a case on Jersey recently where terrible child abuse was discovered at an old school (dug out of the basement). Well, Ted's wife ran such a school, and Ted stepped in to play Father Christmas there (he never abused kids he knew). I wonder if it's the same place?
Hm.
Well, interesting read this - even if NEL were confused about it being a true story or not. I thought the cover was really good, but having seen the photograph above it kind of puts it into perspective!
Interesting read - and for me a different kind of NEL.
