A different view of the flaws of the UK justice system from an author who has seen it from the inside. The complex needs of delivering justice to victA different view of the flaws of the UK justice system from an author who has seen it from the inside. The complex needs of delivering justice to victims and actually helping perpetrators to break out of the complex cycle of drugs, abuse, crime, mental health issues, homelessness, for-profit prison & for-profit ineffective training courses and their roles in re-offending. Chris Atkins makes the case that without a radical overhaul, once a person is pulled into the prison system it is almost impossible to escape again as it is currently set up. He also makes arguments as to how it might be changed by looking at what actually works and what does not....more
Well, I finally read a book about cricket.. and the cricket bits were very ....Crickety? Is that a word? I feel the first part of this book which is aWell, I finally read a book about cricket.. and the cricket bits were very ....Crickety? Is that a word? I feel the first part of this book which is about the cricket prowess of the protagonist's father was really rather shoe-horned in and not really relevant to the main part of the tale which is actually a murder and the (at the time) sensational trial of George Vernon. Let me be clear, I am here for the murder. I do not care that little Georgie's dad played in the original Ashes match or that he was it and a bit with a cricket bat. DO NOT CARE. It was just a section of the book I had to get through for the juicy bits.
In 1910, in outback Queensland a man was murdered on a bright moonlight night. George Vernon's odd behaviour and several other things place him as prime suspect and the police quickly make an arrest. What seemed like a clear-cut case for the Crown prosecution got turned on its head in a sensational and long-lasting trial that dominated the papers for weeks. Did this scion of "upstanding" English upper crust do it? Or is there another twist in the tale?
I will give it up for Gideon Haigh the story certainly keeps you guessing and whether you pick it up for the cricket history or the murder, you will be asking yourself if Vernon did it or not the whole way through! ...more
Eggshell Skull makes a fabulous book for bookclub discussion and a thought provoking read. Bri Lee was the daughter of a policeman, a law student, judEggshell Skull makes a fabulous book for bookclub discussion and a thought provoking read. Bri Lee was the daughter of a policeman, a law student, judge's associate and finally a lawyer in her own right but none of that prepared her for what it would be like to walk into the courtroom as a complainant in her own case. Now a campainer for judicial reform, Bri takes us through her experiences as a graduate law student and judge's associate and how what she saw in courtrooms everyday influenced her decision to confront the man who assulted her - a friend of her brother, who as a teenager, assulted Bri when she was in primary school. Throwing the flaws of the Australian (Queensland) justice system into the light Bri examines the societal and gender prejudices influencing jury trials for sexual assults and the odds stacked against complainants, particularly in historical cases. While there were times when reading this I did get frustrated with Bri as a person (her lack of confidence & self doubt get frustrating at times) the points she makes are excellent. This is an honest look at assult, mental health, society's double standards, and the law from both sides of the bench. ...more
To say this is gripping is a serious understatment. I started reading this at about 7am over breakfast on a Sunday and finished it about 7.30 pm. I diTo say this is gripping is a serious understatment. I started reading this at about 7am over breakfast on a Sunday and finished it about 7.30 pm. I did not get much else done that day... The dissapearance of Sheila and Kate Lyon has haunted the American town of Wheaton, Virginia for more than 40 years. The sisters, just 12 and 10 years old, walked to the nearby Wheaton Plaza to meet some friends and get some pizza in March 1975. When they weren't home by dinner their parents grew concerned and called the girl's friends, fully expecting they had gotten distracted and not realised the time. By dark a full-scale search was mounted as the girls couldn't be located. The search went on for weeks and involved thousands of people. They were never seen again. Over the years various cold-case officers have pulled the case out again and again only to hit dead-ends. Mark Bowden was a young reporter when the girls went missing. His first article about it was published two days after the girls vanished and the case has clearly haunted him as it has haunted the police. For dectectives in Wheaton this was a personal case - not only were the victims so young and innocent, but one of the girls' brothers became a police officer - and even after so many years it had the power to fascinate. Then one day in 2013 while re-examining the evidence a detective finds a statement that was disregarded as the witness came across as an unreliable liar. The witness' name was Lloyd Welsh and detectives thought he might be able to provide a link to a man who is now a known peadophile, who was operating in the area at the time the crime happened. Lloyd was a witness, that's all. But with each encounter with Lloyd the detectives were left with more questions. As the detectives question further they begin to unravel the web of family loyalty and abuse which shaped Lloyd. Lloyd however, is anything but clear. His story changes with each interview. Detectives are left to wonder if he truly knows anything or is just playing them? One thing is clear: he does know something.
Pulled from police and court records, as well as interviews with the detectives and the girls' parents Bowden has put together an extremely gripping crime drama as well as a shocking insight into a family with far too much to hide. ...more
This book will make you angry, so very, very angry. The needless pain these women suffered and the lenghts the Radium companies went to in order to noThis book will make you angry, so very, very angry. The needless pain these women suffered and the lenghts the Radium companies went to in order to not pay for their treatment will disgust you. Kate Moore follows the lives of sereral women who worked for two different companies in two different states in the USA. Their excitement at landing a well-paying, kind of glamourous job in a "clean" environment turns slowly into horror as they realise years later the toxic nature of the "perfectly safe" and "healthful" radium they were encouraged to put in their mouths as they painted numbers on dials of clocks, watches and gauges. They were taught to keep their brushes neat and tidy by putting them in their mouths - Lip. Dip. Paint. All day long, dail after dail. Some did it after every number. Others after two or three. The owners of the factory were aware of what radium did to bodies from the outside but initially at least thought the "miniscule" amounts in the paint wouldn't effect people. When they realised what it was dong they actively suppressed that information from the girls. You see, Radium is mistaken by the body for Calcium and it settles into bones and teeth. Usually the first symptom noticed by the girls was loose or sore teeth. For others is was arthritis-like symptoms. Over time the pain became crippling and the wounds where teeth were removed didn't heal. Strange growths appeared and joints became "locked". Doctors diagnosed everything from Arthritis to Phossy jaw to hysteria. The symptoms were so broad and information so scattered that it took years before all of the conditions were linked back to Radium. And thats when the Radium Girls really had to start to fight - for acknowledgement, recognition and finally for compensation.
The Radium Girls was a great book club discussion topic as we ranged from our feelings for individual people and actions within the story to the wider issues of workplace reforms, the importance of workplace culture as well as legislation, government and industry responsibility, personal liability, other industrial toxins, and the limitations of law.
If you want a book that will make you think this is the one for you....more
March 2019 book club read and I'm glad I didn't read it at the start of the month when fires were burning all over Gippsland in remarkably similar locMarch 2019 book club read and I'm glad I didn't read it at the start of the month when fires were burning all over Gippsland in remarkably similar locations to Black Saturday. I think if I was reading it then I would have been a lot more worried.
This made for an excellent discussion about the nature of fire, the Australian landscape, the role of society in mental health, the justice system, autism, mental health in general, responsible forest management and environmental policies, and several more topics. This is a book about one specific fire. The fire that was lit on Black Saturday, in February 2009, near a town called Churchill. There were hundreds of fires buring that day - it was over 40C and had been every day for weeks. The whole state was a tinder box ready to burn. Most fires were accidental, or the result of dry lightening but some were lit deliberately. This is one of those.
Chloe Hooper begins where the police did - the day after; the start of the investigation and takes us through every step from the perspective of the victims, the police detectives & analysts, and the defence lawyers. Her narrative manages to be both detailed and empathic to all the people touched by this fire from the immediate and devastating impact on the victims to the mental health toll on the investigators and the impact of his actions on Brendan and his family.
Brendan is by turns a hapless victim and incompetent criminal, the debate over how much he truly understands and is able to communicate is part of why it is hard to think of him as someone who acted out of malice. Was he the perfect person to blame because of his social inadequacies? How can someone who doesn't connect to other humans understand the devastating loss he inflicted on others? This book is sure to leave you with both a healthy respect for fire and empathy for those caught up in them. And, maybe, the question of how much responsibility do we all bear for creating the Brendans of this world? ...more
I'm not normally a true crime fan but this was fascinating! The story of how the misogyny and focus on 'honor" of the one of the largest mafia groups cI'm not normally a true crime fan but this was fascinating! The story of how the misogyny and focus on 'honor" of the one of the largest mafia groups caused it's own destruction. The 'Ndrangheta is one of the biggest, richest and far reaching crime syndicates you have never heard of. They run 70% of the cocaine and heroin in Europe, deal in prostitution and people smuggling, launder money on an industrial scale, and have enough financial knowledge and influence to destabilise governments. They are active in most countries but their power base is Calabria, Southern Italy.
The 'Ndrangheta enforce obedience and silence through fear and the absolute corruption of the most sacred of Italian structures: Family. Girls are married young to arranged alliances, they are expected to raise their sons to be ruthless and their daughters obedient and unquestioning. Beatings and isolation are routine - those that try to break away can expect their fathers, brothers, husbands or sons to be the ones to kill her, to dispose of the family's "shame". At the same time these women worked in family businesses, passed messages and kept the books - they knew who made the orders and who carried them out.
When an abused wife, Lea Garofalo, is murdered in 2009 after turning evidence against her Mafioso husband and being let down by the state, State Prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti realised that the mafia's misogyny is its greatest weakness. Over the next few years two more women came forward; Concetta and Giuseppina. Together with the evidence Lea had left and Lea's daughter Denise, these women would be instrumental in bringing down one of the biggest organised crime syndicates in the world.
The scope of influence the 'Ndrangheta is breath-taking, with an estimated earning of 53 billion euro a year (more than 3.5% of Italy's GDP). The brutality by which the families and fellow Calabrian's live is even more so - education is frowned upon, boys think prison is a mark of adulthood and those who speak out simply disappear - their bodies often dissolved in acid. In spite of the wealth the 'Ndrangheta has their area in Italy appears to be among the poorest - buildings are ramshackle, roads are full of potholes and parks are rubbish dumps - wealth is kept hidden and the rest of the community suffer in silence out of fear of reprisals.
This isn't just a story about breaking organised crime, this is a story about changing the entire mentality of a community and Italy as a whole. Perry has done a great job on the extensive research; citing documents, interviews, press articles and more.
If you are interested in organised crime, justice, or like me, are just fascinated by the scope of the "Ndrangheta's operation this is the book for you....more
I was somewhat reluctant to start this book simply because of the subject matter but right from the start I was gripped. The conversational style of nI was somewhat reluctant to start this book simply because of the subject matter but right from the start I was gripped. The conversational style of narration and the way Capote revealed the facts of the case made it easy to relate to each of the people involved - the victims, the bystanders, the perpetrators, and the investigators - even to the point of feeling sorry for the murderers (particularly Smith who came from a particularly bad family situation). This is a fascinating story even after all these years and in a time when we see random shootings on the news practically every week. The analysis of the crime, the investigation and the criminals is as fascinating now as it was then. I can see why this has one of Capote's most enduring books (in truth I liked it much more than "breakfast at Tiffany's") as this narrative journalistic style is clearly his best work. This is one I read for book club and I am looking forward to the discussion. ...more
not a bad fast paced romance but I spent most of it thinking "that's not ethical", 'I'm pretty sure she just gave him grounds for a mis-trial" and othnot a bad fast paced romance but I spent most of it thinking "that's not ethical", 'I'm pretty sure she just gave him grounds for a mis-trial" and other things along those lines. ...more
Read this one straight after I am pilgrim by Terry Hayes and it was an interesting contrast. One was about the extra ordinary lengths both terrorists Read this one straight after I am pilgrim by Terry Hayes and it was an interesting contrast. One was about the extra ordinary lengths both terrorists and law enforcement go to commit and prevent crimes and the laws that get broken in the process and then this one that has governments making laws that strip basic civil rights from citizens when they are accused of terrorist activities - to the point where the accused can be held without charge or even any knowledge of what they are supposed to have done. This story reminded me of the Dr Patel case here in Australia and I'm sure there are similar cases around all western countries that occurred in the aftermath of various terrorist bombings in the uk and us. ...more
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