How is it?

I don’t really know what I make of Quinn’s central conceit—don’t want to say what this is, in case you read it—but it’s a rhythmic and impassioned book. Some months after reading it I can still run through most of its details in my mind, so it’s stayed with me.

Quinn is blurbed by the forensic psychotherapist Gwen Adshead, and it shares with Adshead’s writing a concern for how remorse can be experienced by perpetrators who are inclined to present themselves as victims.

Wilkins attended some lectures which my dad gave at Kings college London in the war studies department—his notes are in the Wellcome Trust collections I think. (Not that this is significant in terms of Wilkins’ own achievements, but I’ve always felt a connection to him).

I thought Eliza Clark’s novel “Penance” was a great example of this sort of writing—critical of true crime and its cliches, but refusing to disavow the pleasure and insights of the genre. Quite a lot of kind of deep tumbler ethnography, which I didn’t love as much, but it’s a really striking book.