A Murderer's Point of View: Background information when reading The Convictions of John Delahunt

A Murderer's Point of View

This article relates to The Convictions of John Delahunt

The Convictions of John Delahunt is narrated by a murderer. The technique of using a first-person account to bring readers into the world of the killer can certainly be effective. Here are some of the better-known novels written from the viewpoint of a murderer.

• Hyde by Daniel Levine (2014)
  
  Levine flips the plot of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so that it's narrated from the point of view of Hyde, the side of Doctor Jekyll responsible for the crimes he commits. The author concentrates on making Hyde human, and leads his audience to sympathize with a character many of us grew up thinking of as a monster.




• The Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay (started 2004)
  
  Beginning with Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay has created perhaps the most likeable serial killer in the genre. Protagonist Dexter Morgan works for the Miami-Dade Police as a forensic analyst, but in his spare time secretly kills "undesirables" – generally evil-doers who have escaped justice. The first book in the series spawned a well-regarded television series based on the character.




• American Psycho by Brent Easton Ellis (1991)
  
  Ellis' novel brings the serial killer to corporate America. Patrick Bateman is a wealthy young investment banker by day, murderer by night. Often appearing on lists of "Most Disturbing" books, the killings the narrator describes become increasingly violent and sadistic. Interestingly, American Psycho was made into a musical in 2013-2014 that ran at London's Almeida Theatre for two months.




• The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (1984)
  
  Another book that is often a part of "Most Frightening" and "Most Disturbing" book lists, this is one of the more gruesome coming-of-age novels out there. It's narrated by the 17-year-old Frank Cauldhame, who relays the murders he commits (as well as the violence he inflicts on animals), often in grisly detail but with a matter-of-fact tone that adds to the horror of the story. Although Banks had written several science fiction novels before penning The Wasp Factory, the novel was his conscious attempt to create something more "mainstream." His plan worked, as it became the first of his books to be published.




• Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)
  
  Most people are familiar with the classic Hitchcock movie of the same name, but few know Psycho originated as a novel. Bloch was inspired to write the book by the real-life murders of two women in the nearby town of Plainsfield, WI, during the investigations of which police found items made of human skin and body parts. Bloch wrote two sequels: Psycho II (1982) in which the protagonist escapes the asylum to which he was sentenced; and Psycho House (1990), which is again set in the Bates Motel when it's reopened years later as a tourist attraction.

Filed under Reading Lists

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Convictions of John Delahunt. It originally ran in July 2015 and has been updated for the May 2016 paperback edition. Go to magazine.