The Sleep of Reason

By: David James Smith

Narrated by: Ronnie Leek

Friday, 12th February, 1993. Two outwardly unremarkable 10-year-old boys began the day by playing truant and ended it running an errand for the local video shop. In between they abducted and killed a two-year-old boy, James Bulger. In search of an explanation, award-winning journalist David James Smith looks behind the misinformation, misunderstanding and sensational reporting to an exact account of the events of that day.

A sensitive and definitive account, The Sleep of Reason achieves a unique understanding of the James Bulger case, and comes as close as may ever be possible to explaining how two 10-year-olds could kill.

©2017 David James Smith (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Absolutely Chilling

This is a thoroughly researched, comprehensive look at a chilling, and disturbing instance of children killing other children. This recount of the events that occurred on the fateful day that James Bulger was killed, conjures up disturbing images, so reader beware.

Couldn't stop listening..

This is a horrifying true story that I found so extremely shocking as the perpetrator's are little kids! Children for God's sake! The story kept my interest throughout and the narration was en point'!

Horrifying

Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys true crime. Incredibly disturbing, but well analyzed. I couldn’t stop listening. So sad.

Read "I Let Him Go" after reading this!

Before I say anything else, make sure you read "I Let Him Go" (a 5 star book in my opinion) by James Bulger's mother. There is no way anyone can tell me those monsters killed this poor little boy because they had bad child hoods, bad parents, suffered through poverty & it is society's fault. The word sociopath should have been used in this book. I have known people & read books about people who have had horrible childhoods that are hard to even believe are true. None of them ever even thought about harming.another person, let alone killing someone. As I'm re-listening to James's mother's book right now, I have to change my review from 4 stars to 3 stars for THIS book. I found it offensive that this author & his lefty liberal view is trying to blame society & the poor unfortunate childhood they had. There is NO excuse for what happened. If the only reason they committed this heinous crime really was because of their poor upbringing, then how about people choosing to not have kids if you can't raise them right or can't afford them? There is a mental sickness in these 2 little evil boys, plain & simple. The bad childhoods & bad parents didn't help, for sure...but this can not be the main reason these kids did what they did.