Hunting Evil: Inside the Ipswich Serial Murders - Paul Harrison

...I bought a copy of Hunting Evil: Inside the Ipswich Serial Murders last week almost as soon as it hit the shelves.

Hunting Evil is written by Sky news journalist Paul Harrison who is claiming to be the 'Journalist who broke the story' - well he might have been to the wider world but, here in Ipswich, I was aware of it around the time the very first girl, Tania Nicol, went missing. I spotted a tiny piece of news in the East Anglian ...
...was missing and, at the time, I can remember being a little puzzled that it warranted so little space in the newspaper - just a few short paragraphs on an inside page for a teenager missing from home. At that time nothing was said about how she earned her living but, I am guessing that was why it didn't make the front page and feature on the TV news.

Co-author of the book is Professor David Wilson a leading criminologist who is said ... more

I find a certain fascination in true crime books so a quick glance along my bookshelf will reveal books about the Yorkshire Ripper, Harold Shipman and Fred and Rosemary West so I guess it was inevitable that sooner or later I would buy a book about Steve Wright - the so-called 'Suffolk Strangler'. Perhaps it was even more likely because I also happen to live just outside Ipswich so have a knowledge of many of the areas where he was operating. Add to that an interest in psychology and you can perhaps understand why I bought a copy of Hunting Evil: Inside the Ipswich Serial Murders last week almost as soon as it hit the shelves.

Hunting Evil is written by Sky news journalist Paul Harrison who is claiming to be the 'Journalist who broke the story' - well he might have been to the wider world but, here in Ipswich, I was aware of it around the time the very first girl, Tania Nicol, went missing. I spotted a tiny piece of news in the East Anglian Daily Times which said that a 19 year old girl was missing and, at the time, I can remember being a little puzzled that it warranted so little space in the newspaper - just a few short paragraphs on an inside page for a teenager missing from home. At that time nothing was said about how she earned her living but, I am guessing that was why it didn't make the front page and feature on the TV news.

Co-author of the book is Professor David Wilson a leading criminologist who is said on the front cover to be 'the UK's No 1 expert on serial killings'. He joined Paul Harrison covering the story for Sky news on 8th December 2006 just after the second body had been found. By that time it was already major news locally - in fact it became a significant story in Suffolk as soon as Gemma Adams went missing, sufficient to warrant headlines and at that time far more was made of Tania Nicol's disappearance as the two were seen as being possibly linked. Gemma's body was found on 2nd December, Tania's was found on 6th December but it wasn't until two days later that the world's media got involved and effectively the story that Paul Harrison is recounting.

The style of the book

The two authors make a fascinating combination with Paul Harrison having the news reporter's skill of bringing the story to life and investigating a little of the background of the characters. David Wilson looks in more depth into motivation, psychological profiling and the methods employed by serial killers.

It works well in that the book is far more than just a chronological account of a period in the history of Ipswich which many of the residents found extremely distressing. It does not seek to recount all of the evidence given in court, which was for the most part centred on the forensic evidence, but it dips lightly into the relevant points in painting a picture.

What is does not do is come up with any answers on why Steve Wright murdered five women over the course of six weeks and deposited their bodies in rural locations. It talks about the motivation of murderers in general and the difficulties of understanding why serial killers embark on their grisly journey.

Would I recommend it?

This is very much a niche book intended I suspect for people like myself who are fascinated by the psychology of murder. If you are interested in that type of book then this book will make an interesting read. There are no answers to the question everyone wants to know which is 'why did he do it?' but there is plenty of food for thought about motivation in there.

I found it an easy read and was interested enough to read it from cover to cover in a couple of days which is recommendation in itself. It didn't tell me anything about the killings I didn't already know (but then I did follow it in some detail throughout the trial) and it does miss out a lot of the detail which came out in the trial but it is thought provoking and interesting. Worth a read if you like this type of book.

ISBN 978-0-7515-4024-6
Cover price £6.99 (I got mine from Amazon at £5.59)
A Sphere title by Little, Brown Book Group.
Paperback
301 pages 

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