A Child's Book of True Crime: A Novel
Penzler Pick,February 2002:Chloe Hooper has chosen to explore the dark  terrain of obsession in this, her first novel.Kate Byrne teaches fourth grade students in Tasmania, the large island off the  mainland of Australia. Young, awkward, and not very self-assured, Kate becomes  involved in an affair with Thomas Marne, the father of one of her students,  Lucien, a charismatic but withdrawn youngster. Kate worries about him and the  dark nature of some of his drawings, and she worries that Lucien may be having  problems with his mother, Veronica, and her career as a bestselling true crime  writer.Veronica's book is currently on the bestseller list and she is busy promoting  it. The book,Murder at Black Swan Point, tells the story of one of the  most notorious crimes in the area. In 1983 a young woman, Ellie Siddell, was  brutally murdered by the wife of the man with whom she was having an affair. The  wife's car was found at the edge of a cliff, and it was commonly believed that  she threw herself off it, although her body was never found. Years later,  Veronica was able to interview the husband before he died, and this interview,  as well as some of the crime scene evidence, is explored in her book. She feels  that there may be another explanation for the murder of Ellie and the wife's  subsequent disappearance.Kate finds herself both charmed and appalled by Veronica when she visits her son  at the school, but Kate also becomes obsessed with the murder and finds herself  drawn to Black Swan Point. As the details of Ellie Siddell's death are slowly  revealed and the affair between Kate and Thomas gets more obsessive, it becomes  obvious that history may repeat itself.The action pauses throughoutA Child's Book of True Crimefor an account  of the murder at Black Swan Point written for children, with animals indigenous  to the continent of Australia taking the parts of the people involved. It is not  until the end of the novel that we find out who is writing this story and why.  Kate also involves her students in discussions involving everything from the  meanings of words to ethical questions concerning behavior and whether actions  have consequences.One of the strong points of the narrative is the description of Tasmania and its  history. Like much of Australia, Tasmania was a penal colony, and the history of  the region involves the lives of the convicts. Children visit the prisons on  field trips. The animals they encounter play a part in their everyday lives and  are also very different for the non-Australian reader, making this not only an  eerie read but also an instructive one. This is a story guaranteed to stay with  you long after you've closed the covers.--Otto Penzler