Soham: A Story of our Times by Nicci Gerrard
This is officially the first book read for my 2010 challenge of reading 100+ books.
Soham: A Story of Our Times by Nicci Gerrard uses the 2002 murder of British girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells as a narrative for the how and why society seems to have an over-emotional reaction to the deaths of people we do not even know, yet seem to be so out of touch with our own selves.
Nicci Gerrard is a former newspaper feature writer and with her husband Sean French, writes best-selling thrillers under the name Nicci French.
This book is not long – 126 pages – and is a gripping read in the sense that it gives an overview of the Soham case and also looks at the grief reactions from the public to events like these and the role of the media in encouraging it.
I arrived back in the UK to live in the August of 2002, when the girls had been missing for a few days (unbeknownst to everybody except their killer Ian Huntley, the girls were already dead) and it did seem like the whole country was gripped by the case. It was Summer and I can remember waking every morning, until they were found, immediately wanting news of what was happening to the girls known now to everyone by their first names.
I then followed, as did millions of others, the trial and media creation of Huntley’s girlfriend Maxine Carr (she had nothing to do with the murders but lied for him) as one of Britain’s “Most Evil” women.
The chapter I found most stirring in the book was when Gerrard details a crime and trial that happened the same year as Soham but barely made a ripple in Britain’s national newspapers. It was about the murder of a woman Lynn Burgess who was a close friend of Gerrard’s sister-in-law and the author’s personal knowledge and subsequent detailing of the case is gripping.
This is a really thought-provoking read that manages to cover several topics in a concise and accessible way.
January 1, 2010
Posted in: 100+ reading challenge 2010
4 Responses
Emily Webb » 100+ reading challenge 2010 - January 1, 2010
[...] Soham: A Story of Our Times by Nicci [...]
100 books in a year — WOW — that is so ambitious!! Good luck! I set out to read a dozen last year…and FAILED!! But I forgive myself because I’ve spent a lot of time reading so many great blogs!
So sorry for the delay in coming to say hello. Thank you so much for swinging by my blog on Monday for my SITS day. Hope you have a very happy new year!
Lauren
Nicci French is a man???! Oh no!!
Book sounds interesting. I’m working up to swapping tv for books, but its so harrrrrrd. And I’m meant to be a librarian, haha.
Excellent blog, very imformative and to the point, keep up the good work.
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