Book Review: Beyond Bad The Life and Crime Of Katherine Knight by Sandra Lee

I have finished the set of 3 Australian crime novels - The Devils Garden, When the Bough Breaks and now Beyond Bad: The Life and Crimes of Katherine Knight, Australia's Hannibal by Sandra Lee

This book is a true story of Katherine Knight who killed her husband and for her grusome crime and showing no remorse was the first Australian women to be given a life sentence behind bars. You know the ending of the book before you begin - Katherine is going to kill her husband - but you don't know who he'll be through her various relationships, or when it will happen, or how. The book was full of facts and went back and forth a lot to repeat stories already told. From the crime onwards it was pretty gruesome reading and I did skip I few lines I couldn't bring myself to read all the gory details of the murder and I know I'm not alone - the police who worked on the case had to get counciling it was that traumatic.

This was another disturbing read and very sad and despressing to think people could do such a thing. There are some troubled minds out there. What I don't get is that all Katherine's threats to her husband were never taken seriously by the friends, family or police. The police should have more power to protect than just think that a piece of paper in the form of a VRO can save someones life and keep them safe. Clearly in this case it didn't.

I would recommend this book to those interested in Australian crime, but you need to have a strong stomach for the latter half of the book. I give this book 3 stars.

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 Boomerang Books]