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Death of a Murderer
Rupert Thomson
#UC2862
Paperback, 226 pages; 2008 (2007)
$14.95
 Members' Price: $12.71
When the news came through on the car radio, Billy sat quite motionless, unable to do anything but listen….It was one of those heightened moments when you make a mental note of your surroundings, and yet the whole thing felt oddly muted, scaled down, like watching an explosion through a telescope. Certainly, it never occurred to him that her death might affect him directly; he had no idea, at that point, that he was about to become part of the story.
Police constable Billy Tyler becomes "part of the story" when he's assigned a twelve-hour night shift in a hospital mortuary, guarding the body of a reviled murderess (who died of natural causes after decades spent in prison). Alone with the "evil" corpse—and, at several chilling moments, with her ghost—Tyler finds himself skulking through his own shadowy memories. With quiet intensity, this exquisitely haunting novel explores humankind's astonishing capability for both cruelty and tenderness.
(CH)
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