Things a Killer Would Know: The True Story of Leonard Fraser: Is He Australia's Worst Serial Killer?

In this overwrought police procedural, Australian investigative journalist Doneman examines the case of serial rapist and murderer Leonard Fraser, who by 2003 was reviled throughout central Queensland as one of the most vicious criminals in modern Australian history. Caught stealing at age 15, Fraser served two stints in a local boys' home whose alumnae, according to locals and officials, have wound up ""committing some of the country's most heinous crimes."" When Fraser was released in 1968, he began the next phase of his criminal career: raping, and later murdering, a succession of women. It was Fraser's 1999 murder of 9-year-old Keyra Steinhardt that would eventually end Fraser's 30-year criminal career and condemn him to four life sentences in prison. Readers accustomed to dispassionate, objective reporting may have difficulty with the emotional and incredulous tone that pervades Doneman's writing. In addition, attribution is infrequent and organization of the timeline proves confusing. Still, Fraser's striking story makes for a page-turning look at the development of a serial killer and the inadequacies of a penal system that, despite correctional staff who ""were confident Fraser would kill,"" set him loose.