Girls, Here Is This Summer's Thriller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Let's start with Megan Kanka.  Because I thought that is where this book was going.

                                         On July 29, 1994--25 years ago, this year--Megan, 7, at the time,  and living in Hamilton Township, NJ was murdered by Jesse Timmendequas, a neighbor, whom no one knew was a known sex offender.  He lured Megan into the house, on the pretext of showing her his puppy, and she was raped and murdered.  The case shocked the nation, led to Megan's Law, and now all sex offenders have to be registered.

                                            Which is where I thought "The Rumor," Lesley Kara's excellent debut novel, was going to focus on.  But I was wrong.

                                               The bare bones of the plot is simple.  A group of women, living in a British suburb, make the discovery that an adult who committed a notorious crime is living in their neighborhood, and the rumors start, and sparks fly.

                                                 But the person in  question is not a man.  It is a woman, who, when she was ten years old, and named Sally McGowan, murdered a younger boy, Robbie Morris.

This called to my mind the case of Mary Bell, of England, who, at ages 10 and 11 killed two young  boys--Martin Brown, 4 and Brian Howe, 3.  She came from the worst circumstances imaginable--her father was an abusive drunk,  and her mother, who had her at 17, was a prostitute, who, as Mary got older, tried to incorporate her daughter into the profession.

Mary did the killing, but Betty Bell should have been imprisoned, too.  Mary is now 62, living under a new identity, with a daughter, and now graddaughter.  As for Betty, she would be 79, and if alive, I hope she is a wrinkled, syphilitic old crone, like Bette Davis, as Mildred Rogers, at the end of "Of Human Bondage."

What is more, Lesley Kara herself has said the idea came to her from personal experience.  Within a town where she was once living dwelt someone who supposedly committed a notorious crime years ago.  Lesley did not start a rumoer, but became fascinated by such a thing being found out, and what might happen, which is what her novel examines.

With all due respect, I will take a stab at whom Lesley might be referring to.  One is, or course, the aforementioned Mary Bell.

But, most likely, and I know I am going out on a limb here, is that the person in question was the young boy on the left--Jon Venables, who, on February 17, 1993, when he and Robert Thompson  were just 10, abducted James Bulger, at age 2, walked him about town, in the Liverpool area,  where they tortured and killed him by the railroad tracks, leaving his body on the tracks, where a train ran over it.  He was dead by the time that happened.

The boys served time, and were released, with new identities.  Thompson has kept a low profile, as has Mary Bell.  But Venables has had to undergo four identity changes, was living with a known pedophile in his twenties, and has been arrested on charges of child pornography.  I always thought him the most dangerous of the two, and feel validated by all this.

But now I go out on another limb.  None of these children, including Sally McGowan in the novel, should ever have been released.  It is my believe that violent sociopathic children are incurable.  Go ahead and attack me, but I stand by it.

Kara's book, to me, endorses what I say.  But it fails to explain why such have not killed again.  My stand comes on the idea that, no matter how long they live, the possibility of killing again is a constant reality, as they have done it before.  I would keep my eye on Robert Thompson too.

Mary Bell, and her friend Norma Bell (no relation) were the basis for the characters of Jenny Brandt and Tara Padden, played to perfection by Hallie Hirsch and Madeline Blue, in the now 20 year old classic "Law And Order" episode, "Killerz," which I urge you to watch.  The last shot exemplifies all I stand by.

As for Kara's novel, it is a fabulous debut.  I am sure she is familiar with everything mentioned in here, especially since she manages, at one point, to reference Myra Hindley.  While alive, both she and her partner, Ian Brady were the Most Hated In Britain.  Now, that distinction goes to Thompson and Venable.

Just one thing.  Neither Kara's novel, nor I, can answer why those like Sally McGowan have never killed again.

However, I would not want these folk in my neighborhood, either.

Read this novel, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!