So Brilliantly Clever

Parker, Hulme and the Murder That Shocked the World

By: Peter Graham

Narrated by: Toby Webster

Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

On June 22, 1954, in the depth of a southern winter, teenage friends Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker went for a walk in a park with Pauline's mother. Half an hour later the girls returned alone. Honorah Parker lay in a sea of blood on a lonely track. She had been savagely murdered.

In this mesmerizing audiobook, lawyer and true-crime writer Peter Graham tells the whole story for the first time, giving a brilliant account of the murder and ensuing trial, dramatic revelations about the fates of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker after their release from prison and their strange lives today, and a penetrating insight into the event using modern psychology.

©2011 Peter Graham (P)2023 Aurora Audio Books

So Brilliantly Clever

The title may describe the girls, but not this book. So bogged down with details. The narrator was fairly monotone. I struggled to finish the book. Felt like I was slugging through clay soil.

Horrible narration

I've been fascinated by the murder of Honorah Parker since seeing the movie Heavenly Creatures (Kate Winslet's debut) in which her teenage daughter Pauline and best friend Juliet (possibly lesbian lover) bludgeoned Honorah with a brick in a stocking. I highly recommend the movie. The grizzly murder happened in New Zealand in 1954.

After serving under six years the girls were given new identities. Upon the movie's release, Juliet was discovered to be best selling crime writer Anne Perry.

The murders and the psychopathology behind ANNE PERRY AND THR MURDER OF THE CENTURY are so much more interesting than this very dry book, filled with too many irrelevant details. Psychological assessment was in its infancy during the 1950s and at the time homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Three prosecution and two defense psychiatrists debated whether these two mentally ill teens were insane at the time of the murders, and even considered whether this was a case of folie a deux (shared psychosis). Most interesting is the chapter looking at the girls from today's psychological perspective of severe personality disorders caused by a disruption in the attachment bonds both girls experienced as children. Much of my doctoral dissertation used Heinz Kohut's theoretical orientation, as did this writer Peter Graham, who did a great job conceptualizing their disorders.

I skimmed a lot of this nonfiction book, and there were nuggets of interesting details, particularly for those interested in mental illness and crime. I recommend watching Heavenly Creatures before reading the book, while fictionalized, the movie is fairly true to actual events.