Murder Without Motive

A Murder Without Motive has ratings and 30 reviews. Carol - Reading Writing and Riesling said: A very personal look at a senseless crimeMy View:A.
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Taurean Blacque as Jonah Perry Sr. Dakin Matthews as Paul Howards. Jason Christopher as Barry Harrison. Jay Underwood as Kyle Lawrence. Peter Iacangelo as Police Sgt. Kelly Jo Minter as Sharanda. Angelo Tiffe as Lee Van Hooten. Keri Johnson as Lanard. Peter Vogt as Mr. Dennis Howard as Mr. John Mahon as Inspector Hedges. Nick Angotti as Chief Michaels. Al White as Mr.

MURDER WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE: A STUDY IN PERSONALITY DISORGANIZATION

Don Dolan as Captain Pierce. Of murder inquiries in London last year, 48 involved female victims. Around 60 per cent were killed by partners or ex-partners, while the remaining cases involved acquaintances or other relatives. Two were killed during robberies and one woman was killed by a burglar. Two of the murdered women were prostitutes. Only one killing involved the motiveless murder of a woman by a stranger. Already this year, there have been two such cases, with at least two more victims having lucky escapes.

In the early hours of 4 February, Marsha McDonnell, a year-old gap year student, died after being battered over the head with a heavy, blunt object close to her home in Hampton. Police have now linked her death to two similar attacks. The first occurred in south-west London on 8 January, when a man was seen crouching over a girl as she lay in the snow clutching her head. The year-old had been listening to her Walkman while walking home when she was attacked.

At first her parents thought she had fallen over, but the publicity surrounding the murder of Marsha McDonnell made them contact the police.

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Tests later showed she had been attacked with the same weapon used to kill Marsha. On 25 February came a third attack. An year-old man was attacked in Hampton, but managed to escape unharmed after his attacker swung a blunt, metallic object - thought to be a hammer - at him. Detectives are convinced the attacker was the killer of Marsha McDonnell and that he may have mistaken the slightly built man for a woman. M-M grew up near where the murder took place and was loosely connected with some of the people involved - everyone knew everyone - or others like them, in the area.

This story gathers power from the author's personal connection because it is, in pa I've enjoyed M-M's journalism in The Saturday Paper, published in Melbourne. This story gathers power from the author's personal connection because it is, in part, an exploration of his own growing up and the forces that shape young men especially in Australian cultures.

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But it is a lot more beside; M-M digs deep into the responsibility of the journalist following a story like this one. He foregrounds the dignity of the victim and her family while explicating the details of their stories; he respects the effort and the humanity of the police officers and those in the legal system who do the hard, tiring, excoriating work of tracking down criminals and bringing them to justice in an imperfect system; he illustrates the culture of the suburb and the lives of its young people, especially young men with telling, resonant detail about violent teen parties, drinking and drug culture, surf culture, tagger culture and more.

The questions he explores, such as the line between Aussie male inarticulateness and the emotional wasteland it creates inside people, affect everyone living in the culture to a greater or lesser degree. His exploration of survival and enduring dignity in the face of terrible loss affects us all because we are human.

Feb 27, Edward Rush rated it liked it. I am from Perth and escaped to Melbourne as soon as I was able. I loved the city in my childhood for its brazen light if McKenzie-Murray didn't use this term, it was something like this and wild streak, but it was also a very rough place to be if you didn't fit into the bigoted mainstream. When I made it over East in , I kissed the ground. I was fascinated by the prospect of this story.

A young woman gets murdered by an aimless young bloke in the wind blasted northern subu I am from Perth and escaped to Melbourne as soon as I was able. A young woman gets murdered by an aimless young bloke in the wind blasted northern suburbs. What could be said about the violent Perth masculine culture by way of explanation?


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McKenzie-Murray offers some conjecture, but he never really cuts through. I think I missed the point of this book. It was well-written, but it seemed a bit callow, and I judged it poorly in comparison to Robert Drewe's "The Shark Net" probably an unfair comparison. I wasn't too impressed either by the letter the author wrote to the murdered girl's parents. It seemed awkward and opportunistic and actually quite poorly written. I think McKenzie-Murray's next book will be of a higher standard.

Feb 08, Sean Kennedy rated it liked it. It's more of a memoir, of someone associated on the periphery of the killer and his friends, and how this case haunts him until he contacts the family and wants to talk to them about writing a book. As such, the author often inserts himself into the book, sometimes successfully and sometimes not when it becomes a little egocentric.

I could have don 3. I could have done without his interpretation of what happened the night Rebecca Ryle was killed - the killer has never given a motive nor completely explained his actions so it is all just conjecture. That was the only time I felt the book strayed uncomfortably into the torture porn genre, and it was completely unnecessary.

As it came towards the end of the book it marred all the good work that had come before it. Aug 07, Amy Mcquire rated it liked it.


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    5. Beautifully written insight into the grief of losing a child. I had a few complaints, but they are mostly to do with my own personal interests. I felt the book was lacking in that there was no access to Duggan. I didn't feel like we knew enough about him to even begin to understand, but that's not the author's fault. I also felt there could have been a better examination into policing in Western Australia - particularly the bit about Duggan's confession.

    Overall though, amazing book and definite Beautifully written insight into the grief of losing a child.

    The 'thrill killers' who murder without motive

    Overall though, amazing book and definitely a welcome departure from the usual true crime book. I found this book to be more about the author and his life and I found it jumped around a lot I also found he wrote about things that had nothing to do with the murder case I found this book to be very boring.

    Aug 20, Rathkom rated it really liked it. Jan 12, Karen rated it liked it Shelves: True Crime writing seems, to this outside observer, to be a minefield of complications. Personal connections to a real crime event, either of the victim, the perpetrator, or community can create a situation that authors must carefully negotiate. Martin McKenzie-Murray grew up in the same neighbourhood as Rebecca Ryle, his brother True Crime writing seems, to this outside observer, to be a minefield of complications. Martin McKenzie-Murray grew up in the same neighbourhood as Rebecca Ryle, his brother knew the man found guilty of her murder, and even though the author didn't personally know any of the parties, he has used that concept of a personal viewpoint in an unusual manner.

    Right from the beginning the recounting of the murder of Ryle is filtered through personal experience and observation. There is an overwhelming sense that somehow, middle class Perth, created an environment of casual violence and male entitlement that this perpetrator bought into. This over-heated environment then the likely catalyst for why he killed, offering a possible reason in the vacuum of explanation left by the killer himself.

    Speculation of motive also expands to a possible recreation of many of the events surrounding Ryle's death. This is a less successful aspect of the book, creating a slightly off tone, perhaps because it moves things from speculation on motive and causation, onto a path with a slight whiff of voyeurism along it. An extremely unusual approach to True Crime, the style of language employed is also off the beaten track.

    Very descriptive, dare one say "flowery" at points, it's a style that's either going to engage or grate excessively on individual readers. The author states in the Afterword and I'm paraphrasing that he wanted to write a true crime book that illustrated the impact on family, and the problems associated with moving on. Readers are going to have to make their own minds up on whether or not that aim was achieved.

    Jan 31, Belinda Missen rated it really liked it. Well there you go, a bit of creative non-fiction, I guess. This was a really different book on a few levels. I picked it out simply because it looked interesting, was 'non-fiction', and I was looking to read more from that pile this year. On another level, this read as more of a personal memoir of the author trying to work out what happened, as opposed to a straight up and down telling of the facts. Good and bad, I guess. Was I particularly interested in the author's life?

    Murder without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story, 1990 (Scene)

    No, but he was able to Well there you go, a bit of creative non-fiction, I guess. No, but he was able to colour in some of the detail of the life and times in which he grew up; the same area and time as the killer.


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    As far as the vocabulary in the book, it seems unnecessarily wordy. Big words are fine, they aren't scary, so long as they're useful and needed.

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    Too many and it just seems like we're trying to prove something to the reader that doesn't need to be proven. Further into the book, I 'enjoyed' listening to the Ryles's discussion of the effect on their sex life. It appears that this is an area that is so often not talked about. I was a bit disappointed that, when it got down to business, the murder, investigation, and subsequent trial only really took up two chapters of the book, albeit it chapters on the larger side.

    Then again, having gone through alllll of these reasons above, I still think this is a great read for no other reason than as a learning experience. More knowledge of the world around you is always a good thing. Jan 24, Trisha rated it liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book focuses on the murder of Rebecca Ryle, which occurred in May I was in Perth at the time, so I was trying to figure out why the name Rebecca Ryle didn't sound familiar to me.

    Maybe it was because I was preparing to travel around the world on my own, and so was distracted.