Innocence Lost (2009)

Author	Amanda Howard
Publisher	New Holland Publishers
Length	255 pages
Genre	Crime
Blurb	The Crimes That Changed Australia
Country

Talk us through it

Amanda Howard takes us on a journey through the dark under belly of the Australian psyche via the crimes that have not only shocked the Australian collective consciousness, but which have also been heard about beyond our shores. The crimes Amanda presents us with have infused the pages of our speculative fiction writers, and have found there way into horror movies both here and abroad. When innocence is lost a creeping paranoia invades the vacuum would seem to be the Author's underlying theme. How many of us leave our doors unlocked at night, don't have a slight cold chill going down our spines when our children leave the house on their own, and no longer trust that slightly eccentric person down the road?

From the Anita Cobby case through Ivan Milat to the Wanda Beach murders Amanda Howard leads us by the hand through the blood stained world the news media report in almost breathless abandonment. When did Australia lose it's innocence?

Ready to take the plunge and look into the real world of predators?

Review

I guess we have all become increasingly blasé about the horrors our citizens inflict on each other in apparently nightly fashion, if the breathless sensationalism of our television news media is anything to go by. Sure we might have a passing thought about the family of an Irish backpacker knifed in Bondi Beach, or shake our heads in dismay about another murder in the Western Suburbs, we may even wonder if tougher policing is required after yet another drive by shooting that is apparently ethnic gang related. But we quickly move onto other things, how is the Aussie cricket team doing in the ashes? Thankfully there are still crimes that raise the public heckles, that get in under our comforted zones, that make us wonder what monsters our society may be harbouring. Amanda Howard's excellent investigation into these later crimes serves notice that complacency is a fragile quality at best, there are more predators out there than most people may expect. The United States isn't alone in nurturing Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, or the more prosaically named Zodiac Killer, Australia has it's fair share of psychopaths who have preyed on the innocent.

Hey after that rather heavy paragraph, Innocence Lost isn't an easy book to read, let's break things down somewhat into more manageable chunks. Ms Howard structures her book into thirteen sections, with each section covering a specific theme. So you have sections for the victims, the serial killers, the family killers, etc. No where does a single crime get repeat coverage, so you don't have multiple viewpoints of say the Backpacker murders happening in two or more sections. Which means you can quite happily pick the crimes that might interest you currently and go back and read up on the others at a later stage. You are not going to miss anything via the pick and mix approach, the book does not follow a chronological structure. I actually prefer my non-fiction crime books in this format as quite often I want to read up on a single individual following mention in a movie or a book of that individual. In my case I had a quick read of the chapter Amanda devoted to Ivan Milat as I had just finished catching Wolf Creek, before starting from the first page and reading my way through this outstanding resource for those travelling the dark path of horror.

My first impression of Innocence Lost was how easy the writing style was to read, which is a god send considering the blood drench carnage that fills the pages. Amanda Howard has that excellent writing style that allows the reader directly into her prose without having to decipher a 101 metaphors or get through paragraphs of naval gazing thoughts on the shape of clouds. The Author is matter of fact, states what happened, and even gives us some insight into the thoughts and motivations of the various people within the book. Amanda Howard doesn't pull any punches she tells us exactly what happened and what affect this had on the local community and the wider Australian consciousness as some of the more horrendous crimes came to public attention. Anyone else wish for the death penalty to be brought back for the Anita Cobby murderers? As a famous saying goes, if you look long enough into the abyss, then you'll want to see Martin Bryant strung up in short order. When did I say I was a fully fledged member of the PC brigade folks?

For any reader in this part of the world a number of the crimes will immediately elicit memories of being woken from our complacent dozes by yet another atrocity committed by one of our own. But I would warrant that there will also be a number of murders included in the book that you were unaware of before reading into them thanks to Ms Howard. Whether or not this is a good thing, there's that creeping paranoia to worry about, I will leave to the reader to decide for his or her self. On the bright side of justice I had heard about Fisher's ghost but until reading about the strange occurrence in Innocence Lost had never been able to find out what the true story was. One of those believe it or not tales that makes us pause to wonder what truth might be out there.

Generally when I sit down and write a review of a non-fiction book someone will contact me and ask for a comparison to another book that they might be aware of. And generally I simply ignore the request. How the hell do I know what book they might be aware of? To save some grief I decided I would do a comparison and then scratched my head for another book to compare Innocence Lost to, before remembering the strangely titled Evil Serial Killers by Charlotte Greig. The title does make you wonder if there are "good" serial killers out there. Anyone mentioning Dexter gets a smack in the mouth we're talking actual people here not fictional characters. Greig's book, which tries for way to much coverage, is sort of the cliff notes version of a crime book as opposed to Amanda Howard's Innocence Lost that is more your in-depth coverage. Greig gives you the "how" but is kind of missing out the all important "why". Given crimes of convenience, you are still left with questioning the reasons and wider implications of most serious crimes, Amanda Howard delivers on that factor. While Greig jumps around the planet to fill out her killer dance card, Howard focuses on Australian crimes to greater effect. End of day Greig presents a book that has been seen before with most readers having got the tshirt already, while Howard delves into a subject area that really has received scant public scrutiny.

Poised at the top of this review was the question about when Australia lost it's innocence as a nation. Most social writers point to the murder of John F Kennedy as the pivotal moment U.S innocence was lost in the gunfire that killed their young charismatic leader. Down Under, and Amanda Howard doesn't shy from this, there's increasing thought that the ugly realities came home to invade with the brutal details of the murder of nurse Anita Cobby. Prior to this single crime the actions of the animals involved was viewed as something that could only happen in the movies or at a pinch in the United States, not here in the wide brown land. Post Anita Cobby and the flood gates have apparently opened.

Before closing this review, that seems to have strayed off the garden path and found some skeletons in the closet, (yo mixed metaphor boy strikes again), I would like to point out the one area where I was in complete disagreement with Amanda Howard. I thought the movie Open Water, the real details as opposed to the fiction on the screen are in Innocence Lost, sucked the life out of the Universe while Amanda seems to have enjoyed the film.

Innocence Lost is available from all good bookshops. My copy came courtesy of Greg and Gwen Norris, thanks guys, and was purchased at the delightful Abbeys bookshop in Sydney Australia. Big plug for Abbeys btw, they have an extensive collection.

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