I loved this book by Carol Ann Lee. I knew a fair bit about the Moors Murders, but only recently did I drag the famous Topping book out of the library. It was an account of a policeman’s re-opening of the Moors case back in the 1980s. It’s gripping, but more than one person had some issues with it. Whenever anyone writes a book or makes some money out of the case, especially amongst the public servants who were involved, it attracts negative comments.

Carol’s book has no such connections or troubles: she is a proper journalist, a proper writer — terms I use advisedly — and brings a genuine warmth to her role of victim counsellor. Even her treatment of Hindley, in many eyes an irredeemable evil killer, there is even-handedness. Why are we so interested in the Moors Murderers after all these years, their guilt beyond doubt, their own lives over? I think there is one reason: they were more like us than we care to admit. Yes, even Hindley and Brady had moments of kindness and generosity, at least to each other, if not to anyone else. That is a shocking revelation in its own right.