AustLit

2013 True Crime Davitt Winner : Judges report:

'The story behind 'the Waterlow killings’ received considerable publicity at the time, in late 2009. Nick Waterlow, an internationally acclaimed art curator, and his daughter Chloe were brutally murdered by his schizophrenic son, Anthony, in front of Chloe's three children. It is a tale worth telling and Pamela Burton tells it well. She has searched the relevant documents, ranging from court records and accounts of police interviews to discussions with family members and colleagues, all of which she handles with sensitivity and discretion.

The Waterlow Killings is neither, however, merely entertaining nor morbidly titillating, as many such books tend to be. Its importance resides in the circumstances of the murder and their implications for public policy.

Burton invites us to conclude that the crime could have/should have been foreseen and prevented. Both the reader and the protagonists, who were directly involved, can in fact 'see it coming' but neither could manage what could have been done. It is Burton's achievement that the narrative is treated not as simply a record of a brutal murder but as a measure of society's difficulty in dealing with forms of mental illness which can lead to violence.' (Source: Sisters in Crime Australia)