In The Thrill of It Mandy Baumont creates a fictional tale out of a very real string of crimes in Sydney in in 1989 and 1990. Those crimes involved a serial killer called John Wayne Glover, who killed six elderly women over a period of 14 months and was nicknamed the Granny Killer. Beaumont also links those crimes to an earlier one (the murder of Australian icon Florence Broadhurst) in a way that was rumoured but not supported by the evidence of the time but does create some resonance in her fictional world.
The Thrill of It opens in 1989 with Emmerson Kerr who lives in her grandmother’s grand house in Mosman on Sydney’s lower North Shore. That grandmother, Marlowe Kerr was a famous designer of materials and wallpapers and was killed in her studio in Darlinghurst in 1977. When Emmerson learns of the death of another elderly woman in similar circumstances, she connects it to her grandmother’s murder and begins to investigate. Luckily for Emmerson, her mother somehow illegally got hold of the official police evidence box from the original crime. When more elderly women are killed and Emmerson finds herself involved in the police investigation.
At the same time, Beaumont gives the perspective of the killer – a “beige man” with mother issues. He is a travelling salesman, married with two children and with a job that gives him access to old age homes among other places, but is highly unremarkable and moves through these places mostly unnoticed. The title of the book comes from his repeated musings that he commits these crimes (not only the murders but also other heinous acts against the elderly) for the “thrill of it”. While the Beaumont implicates him for the murder of Marlowe Kerr, she has a harder time explaining why he waited 12 years before suddenly going on an uncontrollable murder spree.
Beaumont does have a point to all of this though. The narrative is intent on exploring how people can become invisible to the system. Whether it is the killer, who is so grey that no one suspects him. But also his victims. As Emmerson observes at one point:
Old women, I have learned since Marlowe’s death, go largely unseen in a culture that favours the young, the untouched.
The other interesting aspect of this book is its sense of place. With so many Australian crime books, contemporary or historical, focussing on the regions, it is refreshing to find a book that is exploring a very moneyed, urban part of Sydney – the lower North Shore:
There’s a kind of entitled small-town safety here, a refuge from the meagre lifestyles lived beyond the area’s mapped borders. The people here seem so oblivious and indigent. It’s a place of old money that builds and builds, where old women walk slowly wearing their pearls and their designer skirts from the seventies, their hair perfectly and expensively coiffed.
Australia does not have many serial killers (thankfully). So while the backpacker killer still looms large in the public consciousness, the Granny Killer, because of his focus on elderly women has quickly fallen away. For this reason alone The Thrill of It is a timely reminder of a time when the elderly lived in fear even in some of the most well-heeled of Australian suburbs. However, it takes a fair amount of contrivance to bring readers into the story and the investigation, and readers enjoyment may depend on their willingness to spend time in the mind of a serial killer.

Definitely not what I was expecting. This read like a sort of memoir, an almost dreamlike rendition of Emmerson's memories of her aunt Marlowe Kerr. Whilst I liked the writing I was expecting something a little more thrilling. Emmerson's chapters were intersected with chapters from the perspective of Marlowe's killer, a depraved man who prayed on the most vulnerable, who inhabited a deeply ingrained hatred towards women. They were repulsive but still did not break up the monotony of the story.
I appreciated the writing and felt Beaumont's descriptions of North Shore to be beautiful, however, I was hoping for more of a thriller crime story.

Wow, this was intense and brutal along with being well written and fascinating! Both main characters within the book are dealing with major obsession issues, and very much living in the past with their actions. For Em, she is stuck hero worshipping her dead grandmother, who is actually highly flawed, and focused on who may have killed her. For the serial killer, he is a horrific monster who is hung up on his mother and despite being seen as a creepy pervert thinks women think he is amazing. He is also obsessed with anything to do with his mother which makes for some twisted interactions and counts of sexual abuse against those who can’t protect themselves. There are so many moments where it is frustrating that neither Emmerson or the police stop several unnecessary deaths by their lack of action. While reading I kept thinking something about the cases seemed vaguely familiar but it was only at the end of the book that the author revealed that while fiction it was based on a true crime. In looking up some of the details there are a number of similarities including some of the final stages of the book. It is hard knowing after reading this, which parts are fiction and which are more well researched. Seeing inside the mind of the serial killer in the way the author presented, and what led to his assault and killing for “the thrill of it” was horrific at so many levels and yet handled well by the author. I struggled to like any of the characters in this other than possibly Tristian; and yet it was still well done. Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Australia & New Zealand for letting me read an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

Inspired by the real-life brutal slayings of six women on Sydney North Shore between 1989 to 1990 by English-born John Wayne Glover, also known as the Granny Killer.

A breathtakingly fast-paced and gripping story of mystery and crime. I did find it really chilling and it did creep me out but it was a great read and enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.