Let’s start the year off with some murder – true crime, this time. Like so many people around the world, I was fascinated by the Mushroom Murders and Erin Patterson’s trial for the murders of three people and the attempted murder of a fourth. I was also amazed at how quickly books on the subject appeared. I have now read three of them – The Mushroom Murders by Greg Haddrick and The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, and Recipe for Murder by Duncan McNab.
I thought Greg Haddrick’s book was excellent. He tells the gruesome tale from the point of view of an imagined woman serving on the jury – you learn about the selection process, her initial belief that Patterson had just made a terrible mistake, the mounting evidence against her in the courtroom, and finally the verdict. The author raises many interesting questions along the way – the seeming lack of any real motive for the murders, the fascination the public has had for the case, the ways in which Erin Patterson was judged by many on her appearance and demeanour, and the truly extraordinary number of lies an intelligent woman told along the way in the belief she could get away with them. I was gripped from beginning to end and found myself thinking about the book for days afterwards. I had lots of questions for my lawyer husband (how can a jury put out of their minds, as they were directed to do, the attempted poisonings of her husband in the months before the murders?, for example), and have had some interesting discussions with friends about the many controversial and thought-provoking issues the book raised.
The Mushroom Tapes is a very different kind of book. Three women (all authors) travelled to the courtroom (or watched it on screen) throughout the trial. In the car they taped their discussions about Erin, her motives, others in the courtroom, women who kill, and many other matters. I found the style of the book disjointed and much of the content seemed irrelevant – for example, when they recounted dreams they had had the previous night it was simply dull and had nothing to do with the trial. The reader is presented with their emotions throughout the trial – they go and have a stickybeak at her house and feel very conflicted about such a visit, they wonder what they will do with all their recorded material if there is a hung jury, and they spend way too much time talking about faeces. I know that Helen Garner is generally a good writer, but I have not read any books by the other two authors. To me, this book felt like a rushed job, too full of padding, and it left me feeling unsatisfied. It also had the most boring cover I have seen on a book in a very long time.
Feeling I needed to be ‘completist’, I also read the latest offering and third book on the topic – Recipe for Murder, the Poisonous Truth behind Erin Patterson the Mushroom Murderer of Leongatha by Duncan McNab, published by Hachette. It has the best title and the best cover design of the three books, but I didn’t find it as good as Greg Haddrick’s book. Perhaps this was because the content had become extremely familiar to me, but I didn’t think it was as well set out, or as insightful when it came to some of the problems of the case.
I’m not much of a reader of true crime, but there was something about this Aussie ‘Midsomer Murder’ that absolutely intrigued me. What drives a person to kill, and in such a way? I find fictional crime less disturbing, so it’s back to some Agatha Christie’s for nice unthreatening cosy murders for me!
Have you read any of these new books about Erin Patterson and her fatal Beef Wellington (a dish probably named for the Duke of Wellington)? If so, I’d love to hear which one you preferred so please leave a comment.
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Kate
While I agree that The Mushroom Tapes was, by its nature, disjointed and sometimes strayed from the topic, I still found it covered some interesting angles. For example, they speculate on the difference of coverage and outrage had the victims been kids (ageism); the whole fascination with female poisoners and whether there was a ghoulish witchcraft fascination from some quarters; the countercultural expression of forgiveness by Ian Wilkinson; the self-examination of the authors’ own motives and prejudices.
As for their “fascination with faeces”, in the context, it isn’t totally irrelevant. It comes up because Erin was claiming to also have been ill with diarrhoea, and she is questioned about her bowel movements in court. Her behaviour on the day she was supposedly suffering painful diarrhoea was totally at odds with her claims, which ended up adding to the case against her.
Helen Garners other books on crime really took their toll on her (I can see why, having read This House if Grief) so she wanted support and a team. Sarah Krasnostein, by the way, is the author of The Trauma Cleaner, which I highly recommend. It is unusual and harrowing at times, but a fascinating read.
I may read the first book you mentioned, and will let you know my thoughts if I do. Thanks for your work.
Susannah Fullerton
Others have recommended The Trauma Cleaner to me, so I might try that. Yes, I agree that faeces were relevant to the case, but I didn’t find their comments on that topic relevant to the case. I felt they digressed too far and too often.
Melody
I thought The Mushroom Tapes was interesting in what it revealed of the three writers’ different approaches to the subject (which could have been any crime, really) and their conjectures about truth and motive. I had deliberately not followed the trial closely when it was in the news, so most of what I know of it is what I saw through the eyes of the three writers in this book, and most of what I learned from the book was about human nature in general rather than this crime in particular. I don’t intend to read any more books about it.
Susannah Fullerton
Like you, I feel three books on the subject is enough and I do not plan to read any more books on the topic.