Something very like murder

by Frank Kuppner

A careful, wry and witty blend of crime documentary, where theories and counter-theories abound, and personal journal in which a son faces the anguish of losing his parents.

Genres: Nonfiction

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Frank Kuppner was born in Glasgow in 1951 and has lived there ever since. He has been Writer in Residence at various institutions, currently at Strathclyde. Carcanet have published six books of his poetry: A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty (Scottish Arts Council Book Award, 1984), The Intelligent Observation of Naked Women (1987), Ridiculous! Absurd! Disgusting! (1989), Everything is Strange (1994), Second Best Moments in Chinese History (1997) and What? Again? Selected Poems (2000).

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This part-memoir, part-research notes, part-non-fiction crime tale, part-novel (if we take the Moore definition), is an interesting bundle of words printed on paper. Kuppner is a German-Scots poet and in the 1990s, when Polygon press in Edinburgh existed and published quirky things, a writer of longer books. A series of short chapters ruminating on a murder committed by Bertie Willox (of his father), alongside numerous other violent murders and crimes, intermingled with accounts of the loss of Kuppner’s parents, Something Very Like Murder isn’t quite successful as a coherent work with a purpose (how unpostmodern!), although the affecting account of his parents’ loss is worth the reader’s attention and the morbid litany of crimes detailed is entertaining in the same grim manner as Bolaño’s ‘The Part About the Crimes’ in 2666 (‘entertaining’ in this sense meaning car-crash horror ‘fun’). The local focus means the novel (and this review) is unlikely to interest non-Scots. But we live in hope. Apparently the Scots have literary awards now. Bless!