A Thread of Violence by Mark O'Connell (2023), published by Granta
What it’s about: In 1982 the aristocratic Malcolm Macarthur undertook a bungled crime spree which resulted in the death of two people leading to his eventual arrest in the home of the Attorney General. It almost led to the downfall of the government and remains an intriguingly shocking story. O’Connell sets about untangling what happened and tracks down Macarthur, who was released from jail in 2012, to see if he is willing to shed any light into his motivations and actions.
Why you should read it? This well-known story is given fresh impetus by O’Connell’s deft grappling with his own conscience through his interactions with Macarthur. Can he gain insight into Macarthur and the motives for his murders or will he be lost in a maze of subterfuge? For fans of true crime stories and podcasts.
What the critics said... "A gorgeously nimble stylist, he writes the sort of sentences that get me checking my own in agitated competitiveness. More to the point, no contemporary literary mind seems to me more subtle, perceptive or trustworthy." - Rob Doyle, The Guardian
What led O’Connell to the story? "The sheer awfulness of what he had done seemed unfathomable, and yet I felt strongly that we might share a language in which he could speak to me of it. I became determined to try."
For readers of… John Banville’s The Book of Evidence (which is also based on the same story), Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
A Thread of Violence by Mark O'Connell (2023) is published by Granta
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