Book Review: The Devil's Garden: The Claremont Serial Killings by Debi Marshall

I was scouring my bookcase at home for a change of pace from the romance style books I’ve been reading lately and came across The Devil’s Garden by Debi Marshall.

This book is written by a crime journalist from Tasmania who become interested in the unsolved Claremont murders and other missing women in Western Australia. In 1996 and 1997, 3 young women went missing from Claremont nightclub area - Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. I was 17 when stories of these girls disappearing were all over the news and I remember my parents wouldn’t let me catch the train anywhere near there, come to think of it to this day I've never been on a night out in that area either.

I found this book really interesting to read because it named a lot of high profile police, lawyers, etc around Perth my hometown. It opened my eyes to how secret squirrel the WA police force is and how backwards they were in their working - not matching DNA databases to the rest of Australia, not using lie detector tests, not discussing full facts or sharing information, countless internal reviews and crys of corruption. The book also touched on how many innocent people have been sent to jail for crimes that didn’t commit – makes you wonder if they can find guilty people if they lock the innocent ones up just to close a case. 15 years on the killer has not been locked away and could be wondering the streets of Perth still preying on women. These crimes should not go unsolved with the technology we have nowadays – I agree with Debi’s plea: someone somewhere must know something.

I would recommend this book to anyone who lives in Australia, its an interesting insight into the workings of how crimes are solved. I give this book 4 stars and hope someday they find the person that did this so the families can have closure and try to move on with their lives.

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

[Image via Random House]