In 1994, director Peter Jackson released the film Heavenly Creatures, based on a famous 1950s matricide committed in New Zealand by two teenage girls embroiled in an obsessive relationship. This film launched Jackson's international career. It also forever changed the life of Anne Perry, an award-winning, bestselling crime writer, who at the time of the film's release was publically outed as Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers. A new light was now cast, not only on Anne's life, but also her novels, which feature gruesome and violent deaths, and confronting, dark issues including infanticide and incest. Acclaimed literary biographer, Joanne Drayton, intersperses the story of Anne's life with an examination of her writing, drawing parallels between Anne's own experiences and her characters and storylines. Anne's books deal with miscarriages of justice, family secrets exposed, punishment, redemption and forgiveness, themes made all the more poignant in light of her past. Anne has sold 25 million books worldwide and published in 15 different languages, yet she will now forever be known as a murderer who became a writer of murder stories. Drayton was been given unparalleled access to Anne, her friends, relatives, colleagues and archives to complete the book. The result is a compelling read which provides an understanding of the girl Anne was, the adult she became, her compulsion to write and her view of the world.
The Cater Street Hangman: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel - The first book in Perry’s bestselling Victorian crime series, bringing together Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison
Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation gradually peels away the proper veneer of the elite world, exposing secrets and desires until suspicion becomes more frightening than truth. Outspoken Charlotte Ellison, struggling to remain within the confining boundaries of Victorian manners, has no trouble expressing herself to the irritating policeman. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to a romantic connection, the socially inappropriate pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again.
Rich with authentic period details, The Cater Street Hangman hooks readers from the moment the sparks first fly between Charlotte and Thomas.
Joanne Drayton has a doctorate from the University of Canterbury, has published papers on art history and theory, and lectured and taught since 1981.
She is the author of four highly regarded biographies of early 20th century New Zealand women artists and writers. These are: Edith Collier: Her life and work 1885-1964 (1999), Rhona Haszard: An experimental expatriate New Zealand artist (2002), Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing (2005) and Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (2008).
Joanne was awarded a National Library Fellowship in 2007 to research and write her biography of Marsh.
Joanne has curated exhibitions of Collier, Haszard, Hodgkins and D.K. Richmond’s work, and publishes in art history and theory.
She lectures at Unitec on design theory and 19th and 20th century art history.
More research: Ian Rankin talks to Anne Perry (Juliet Hulme)
Joanne was awarded a National Library Fellowship in 2007 to research and write her biography of Marsh.
Joanne has curated exhibitions of Collier, Haszard, Hodgkins and D.K. Richmond’s work, and publishes in art history and theory.
She lectures at Unitec on design theory and 19th and 20th century art history.
More research: Ian Rankin talks to Anne Perry (Juliet Hulme)
Reflections of the Past - The Parker Hulme Murder
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