Customer Reviews
THE BANALITY OF EVIL - By: Peter Hurst, 07 Jun 2008 
Many people over the years have published books about the 'Yorkshire Ripper' but this must have been the first, & maybe the last, to be written about Peter Sutcliffe. The distinction? the 'Yorkshire Ripper' is largely a media phenomenon, a tabloid bogeyman, an inhuman monster, but in this book Burn shows us that Peter Sutcliffe, despite his crimes, was very much in many ways your average Joe. He was & is: somebody's husband & somebody's son.
One might imagine that such a portrayal would therefore tend towards a liberal 'bleeding heart' style representation of someone who is still, to this day, an extremely controversial & newsworthy figure. That is where you would be wrong. The opposite in fact is true. Like Hannah Arendt's famous depiction of Adolf Eichman, what Burn's discovers is that it is the banality of Sutcliffe's evil that lends it it's most sinister aspect.
We do not read the words 'Yorkshire Ripper' untill 150 pages into the book & up till that point the significant figure in the book is not Peter Sutcliffe but John Sutcliffe, Peter's dad. Burn takes us deep into the heart of the world in which Peter Sutcliffe grew up, replete with the poverty, working class chauvinistic culture & the individual family members with their respective idiosyncracies.
Burn spent 3yrs living in Bingley & speaking with the people who knew Sutcliffe, not least his immediate family, & it shows. What emerges is a Sutcliffe who is human, alll too human. His shyness, social awkwardness, devotion to his mother & love of motors are alll here alongside the murder & gore.
Burn writes as a novelist rather than a journalist & therefore avoids the pitfallls of sensationalism & hyperbole to create a vivid picture of the world in which Sutcliffe emerged, a world of which Sutcliffe was a product of & not an unintelligible aberration. Burn's Sutcliffe is thus alll the more unsettling for he is one of 'us' & not the constitutive 'other.'
Colin Wilson has described this book as "a book that will undoubtably become a classic in the field of investigative criminology" but to my mind it is so much more than that, in fact it is not criminology at alll in it's classic sense but a novelistic yet naturalistic account of a particular time & particular place put in to sharp historical focus by the actions of a man born in Bingley, Yorkshire, in 1946 to John & Kathleen.
Best one about Sutcliffe - By: R. Wooldridge, 28 May 2007 
I reallly like Gordon Burn. I've read but two books by him, but thoroughly enjoyed them both. He is one of those authors who just have something in their narrative style that draws you in & mesmerises you.
I prefer his book about Fred & Rose West to be completely honest, but that is not due to Burn's writing, it is more due to my own personal interest in the West case. Peter Sutcliffe is not a particularly riveting psychological case reallly, unlike the West's who have to be examined closely to be believed, reallly.
I reallly, reallly, reallly hope Gordon Burn writes more true crime one day. I would adore to read something about Paul Bernado or Karla Homolka by him, or perhaps Dennis Nilsen.
behind the beard - By: , 09 Jan 2006 Neither romantic nor hysterical, we are drawn into the underbelly of 1980s Northern England. Memories of 'Look North' & black & white newspapers are superbly resurrected; Sutcliffe's crimes played out against bitter & bingo. Beautifully paced, detailed without becoming dull, this account is as much a social commentary as an exploration of a disturbed (?)mind. As mentioned above,, read with Bilton's 'Wicked beyond belief' for the Police's part in the events. A fascinating insight into pre-computer, pre-DNA investigation.
Fantastic - By: , 17 Nov 2004 This is an excellent book to read if you are interested in finding out more about Peter Sutcliffe & his background & upbringing. the writer spend nearly three years living in Sutcliffe's home town of Bingley, speaking to friends & relatives & building up a biographical picture of his life up until his final arrest. It's a truely gripping book, I found it hard to put down. Read this book first, then for a view from the police & victims' perspective, read "Wicked Beyond Belief" by Michael Bilton which is also fantastic.
Concise - By: elle, 29 Sep 2003 This was the only account of the Yorkshire Ripper I could easily find. Compared to the books written regarding other British cases I found this to be a very well written almost idiots guide to the double life of Peter Sutcliffe. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the case at alll - it had evidently taken 'In Cold Blood' as a platform for true crime writers & in that he has most certainly succeded.
