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You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]
Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.
A letter arrives. You’ve got an appointment with a trainee clinical psychologist on April 29, 2008.
You don’t attend.
Another letter arrives. It says they don’t normally reschedule appointments, but they know this is hard for you, so they’re offering you another appointment. It’s on May 13, 2008.
You don’t attend.
Two years later you shoot three people and shoot yourself. You will be called a monster. You will be called evil. The prime minister, David Cameron, will stand up in Parliament and say you were a callous murderer, end of story. You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.
Go.
Raoul Moat became notorious one hot July week when, after killing his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, shooting her in the stomach, and blinding a policeman, he disappeared into the woods of Northumberland, evading discovery for seven days. Eventually, cornered by the police, Moat shot himself. Here, Andrew Hankinson re-tells Moat's story using Moat's words, and those of the state services which engaged with him, bringing the reader disarmingly close, at all times, to the mind of Moat.
A letter arrives. You’ve got an appointment with a trainee clinical psychologist on April 29, 2008.
You don’t attend.
Another letter arrives. It says they don’t normally reschedule appointments, but they know this is hard for you, so they’re offering you another appointment. It’s on May 13, 2008.
You don’t attend.
Two years later you shoot three people and shoot yourself. You will be called a monster. You will be called evil. The prime minister, David Cameron, will stand up in Parliament and say you were a callous murderer, end of story. You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.
Go.
Raoul Moat became notorious one hot July week when, after killing his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, shooting her in the stomach, and blinding a policeman, he disappeared into the woods of Northumberland, evading discovery for seven days. Eventually, cornered by the police, Moat shot himself. Here, Andrew Hankinson re-tells Moat's story using Moat's words, and those of the state services which engaged with him, bringing the reader disarmingly close, at all times, to the mind of Moat.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 11, 2016
29 people are currently reading
1313 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
August 29, 2018
How is this book not more famous than it is?
I stumbled across it in a bookshop and picked it up on a whim, and I can honestly say it is one of the best books I've ever read.
There are a number of literary devices in this book.
Each are used as they should be. For a reason and to good effect.
The first is experimentation with voice. You are addressed as if you are Roaul Moat, and as if you are performing the actions which he is (also known as second person). This puts you into his mind. This changes at points to first person where you/Moat are recording what you have done and trying to justify it.
During these first person passages the prose turns to stream of consciousness thinking where you / Moat 's mind jumps around a lot. This can be unbroken paragraphs for four pages.
The other paragraphs, if you can call them that, are very short, sometimes only a sentence. This makes the narrative very fast paced and action packed.
The result is devastating.
I had trouble sleeping after reading this book, definitely directly due to reading it. That hardly ever happens but it absolutely terrified me. Not in a superficial jump scare way, but understanding Roaul and how his mind worked really messed me up.
What is so messed up about it is he really felt he was doing the right thing. He wasn't, I guess, a bad guy in the way you would expect him to be (although he definitely was a bad guy, a real evil fucker). He felt like he had been backed into a corner, bullied and picked on, had his life destroyed by others, and he had no choice but to hit back. That is what is so messed up about it. The attacker, shooter, however you describe him was actual a vulnerable victim in his own head.
I really don't know what else to say about this one apart from that you should read it.
I stumbled across it in a bookshop and picked it up on a whim, and I can honestly say it is one of the best books I've ever read.
There are a number of literary devices in this book.
Each are used as they should be. For a reason and to good effect.
The first is experimentation with voice. You are addressed as if you are Roaul Moat, and as if you are performing the actions which he is (also known as second person). This puts you into his mind. This changes at points to first person where you/Moat are recording what you have done and trying to justify it.
During these first person passages the prose turns to stream of consciousness thinking where you / Moat 's mind jumps around a lot. This can be unbroken paragraphs for four pages.
The other paragraphs, if you can call them that, are very short, sometimes only a sentence. This makes the narrative very fast paced and action packed.
The result is devastating.
I had trouble sleeping after reading this book, definitely directly due to reading it. That hardly ever happens but it absolutely terrified me. Not in a superficial jump scare way, but understanding Roaul and how his mind worked really messed me up.
What is so messed up about it is he really felt he was doing the right thing. He wasn't, I guess, a bad guy in the way you would expect him to be (although he definitely was a bad guy, a real evil fucker). He felt like he had been backed into a corner, bullied and picked on, had his life destroyed by others, and he had no choice but to hit back. That is what is so messed up about it. The attacker, shooter, however you describe him was actual a vulnerable victim in his own head.
I really don't know what else to say about this one apart from that you should read it.
November 2, 2023
In the early hours of 3 July 2010 near Newcastle, Raoul Moat, a 37 year-old bodybuilder, recently released from prison, shot his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend with a sawn-off shotgun before going on the run; his ex would survive but the boyfriend died. Moat would go on to shoot PC Rathband, a police officer (who survived but was permanently blinded – unable to cope with his disability, he committed suicide two years later). On the run for seven days, Moat camped out in the woods of Northumberland.
Like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Andrew Hankinson's You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life You Are Raoul Moat is a non-fiction novel, using letters and tape recordings made by Moat while on the run to recreate his voice and thoughts in a chronological narrative of his final days from his prison release to his death. The result is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic read.
It's a grimly compelling book though, that, through the use of a third person narrative, credibly takes the reader into Moat's tortured mind. The reader gets to understand (if not excuse) the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him.
There's a certain amount of repetition as much of the text is taken directly from Moat's own recordings: Samantha Stobbart, his ex girlfriend, means the world to him; the police incessantly harass him; his bad childhood; his bodybuilding; etc. Whilst this gets slightly tedious it also helps inform an obsessive and unstable personality. Moat makes numerous bad choices however devotes himself to justifying what he has done. He has a huge capacity for self-pity as he obsessively chronicles how the council, the police, and the system are out to get him. To avoid Moat's statements being wholly one-sided, Andrew Hankinson adds factual statements in brackets. This technique reveal Moat as an unreliable narrator who glosses over his own bad behaviour and gradually undermines his own testimony. Hankinson reveals a shocking history of domestic violence.
The book's main theme is the outdated ideology of hardman masculinity. Moat had a history of violence and anger. His descriptions of bodybuilding, cage fighting, and working as a bouncer are a glimpse into a self destructive and appalling world.
You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life You Are Raoul Moat is a short, gripping read that asks lots of complex questions and provides no easy answers. Another great True Crime book.
4/5
Like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Andrew Hankinson's You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life You Are Raoul Moat is a non-fiction novel, using letters and tape recordings made by Moat while on the run to recreate his voice and thoughts in a chronological narrative of his final days from his prison release to his death. The result is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic read.
It's a grimly compelling book though, that, through the use of a third person narrative, credibly takes the reader into Moat's tortured mind. The reader gets to understand (if not excuse) the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him.
There's a certain amount of repetition as much of the text is taken directly from Moat's own recordings: Samantha Stobbart, his ex girlfriend, means the world to him; the police incessantly harass him; his bad childhood; his bodybuilding; etc. Whilst this gets slightly tedious it also helps inform an obsessive and unstable personality. Moat makes numerous bad choices however devotes himself to justifying what he has done. He has a huge capacity for self-pity as he obsessively chronicles how the council, the police, and the system are out to get him. To avoid Moat's statements being wholly one-sided, Andrew Hankinson adds factual statements in brackets. This technique reveal Moat as an unreliable narrator who glosses over his own bad behaviour and gradually undermines his own testimony. Hankinson reveals a shocking history of domestic violence.
The book's main theme is the outdated ideology of hardman masculinity. Moat had a history of violence and anger. His descriptions of bodybuilding, cage fighting, and working as a bouncer are a glimpse into a self destructive and appalling world.
You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life You Are Raoul Moat is a short, gripping read that asks lots of complex questions and provides no easy answers. Another great True Crime book.
4/5
August 8, 2016
In the early hours of 3 July 2010 near Newcastle, Raoul Moat, a 37-year-old bodybuilder/mechanic, recently released from prison, shot his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend with a sawn-off shotgun before going on the run; his ex would survive but the boyfriend died. Moat would go on to shoot a police officer (who survived but was permanently blinded – unable to cope with his disability, he committed suicide two years later) before being cornered by police after six days and killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head.
Like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) is a non-fiction novel, using letters and tape recordings made by Moat while on the run to recreate his voice and mind-set in a chronological narrative of his final days from his prison release to his death.
It’s a grimly compelling book that successfully manages to take the reader into Moat’s head to catch a glimpse of what drove him to such extremes. The book’s greatest achievement is in humanising Moat – not making him sympathetic, because he’s not; besides the shootings, he beat his partner and kids and his brief stay in prison was due to assault of a minor – by showing the reader the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him. Evil is not unknowable, it’s all around us; its potential is in all of us but some are less equipped to deal with life’s trials and so we get people like Raoul Moat completely losing it.
After we learn about Moat’s life and he’s carried out the shootings, the book sags in the middle as Moat’s directionless ramblings repeat his problems: how his ex means the world to him, his paranoid delusions of the police persecuting him, blaming his bad childhood, and on and on. I understand why this lengthy passage is included – to show us the mundanity of a so-called monster – but re-reading information we learned earlier in the book is still an extremely onerous part of an otherwise fast-moving and gripping read.
I liked Hankinson’s choice to write the book in the second person – “You” over “I” or “He” – which gives it a personal immediacy for the reader. Hankinson’s touch is very light, allowing the material to speak for itself and only really interjecting with facts in brackets () to bring clarity and real-world perspective to Moat’s semi-fabricated worldview (you can see this clever approach reflected in the title too).
You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) is a fascinating account of the 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt from the perspective of the killer. It’s also not the cheeriest of reads but it does give you an idea of the ordinariness of the reasoning behind some extraordinary actions and reminds you that humans are never monsters – they’re always human.
Like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) is a non-fiction novel, using letters and tape recordings made by Moat while on the run to recreate his voice and mind-set in a chronological narrative of his final days from his prison release to his death.
It’s a grimly compelling book that successfully manages to take the reader into Moat’s head to catch a glimpse of what drove him to such extremes. The book’s greatest achievement is in humanising Moat – not making him sympathetic, because he’s not; besides the shootings, he beat his partner and kids and his brief stay in prison was due to assault of a minor – by showing the reader the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him. Evil is not unknowable, it’s all around us; its potential is in all of us but some are less equipped to deal with life’s trials and so we get people like Raoul Moat completely losing it.
After we learn about Moat’s life and he’s carried out the shootings, the book sags in the middle as Moat’s directionless ramblings repeat his problems: how his ex means the world to him, his paranoid delusions of the police persecuting him, blaming his bad childhood, and on and on. I understand why this lengthy passage is included – to show us the mundanity of a so-called monster – but re-reading information we learned earlier in the book is still an extremely onerous part of an otherwise fast-moving and gripping read.
I liked Hankinson’s choice to write the book in the second person – “You” over “I” or “He” – which gives it a personal immediacy for the reader. Hankinson’s touch is very light, allowing the material to speak for itself and only really interjecting with facts in brackets () to bring clarity and real-world perspective to Moat’s semi-fabricated worldview (you can see this clever approach reflected in the title too).
You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) is a fascinating account of the 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt from the perspective of the killer. It’s also not the cheeriest of reads but it does give you an idea of the ordinariness of the reasoning behind some extraordinary actions and reminds you that humans are never monsters – they’re always human.
November 9, 2019
Utterly brilliant. Chilling, deeply sad and occasionally inadvertently hilarious. Think of something like Chopper redone in Newcastle as a 'choose-your-own-adventure', with the choices already made by Raoul Moat as they happened in real time, and your chaotically violent fate long decided. As Louis Theroux suggests, it's a test of the limits of empathy for a deluded and ruined man whose every act (such as battering his girlfriend multiple times and gunning people down) is self-justified and twisted to suit his own ends. Fascinating insight and rapidly read over a few short hours.
March 4, 2016
The story of Raoul Moat was odd to say the least, in a fairly quiet summer the media had little to cover really, so a gunman on the loose quickly became the main topic. It also became one of those stories that seemed to spin out of control, with Gazza and Ray Mears both becoming unexpectedly involved (even if it did seem beyond belief). Which is probably why the title made me do something of a double take - it's certainly eye catching and probably not the kind of thing you really expect to see pop up.
Reading the blurb proved reassuring, it promised a view of the events from Moat's perspective. Hankinson manages something more impressive that that however, instead delivering a careful representation of Moat's many letters and recordings interspersed with asides that add extra facts and information to put his thoughts into context.
The end result is insightful. Moat becomes more human, he seems to display an awareness of his actions, even to an extent accepting some responsibility for the situation. He still clearly feels he has been forced into it all by injustices acted upon him and the actions of others, but he doesn't pretend to be completely pure and innocent either. Hankinson delivers his comments in a minimalistic fashion and with deft timing. They don't seem intended to influence your opinion of Moat, if anything they do the opposite - they're neutralising Moat's speeches, injecting some reality into the image he's painting. Sometimes these comments are repeated, echoing Moat's claims of injustice, sometimes they're different, to deal with another new claim. Consistently they puncture Moat's bubble. What makes them so worthwhile however is that they don't alienate Moat either.
It all creates a delicate balance. You can't escape the violence of this man, no matter how much he pleads. You can't deny his intentions, he freely admits them. But on some level you can see a man who needed help too. Not in the manner he felt he did, but someone who slipped through the cracks - a system that we always hope will work, but that is over stretched and relies on those who need help the most cooperating. Something Moat didn't really manage to do.
By telling the story from Moat's perspective the author skips over the glorified aspects, the aforementioned celebrity involvements and the headline soundbites. It seems fair and honest. It gives a voice to a man who was crying out to be heard while at the same time making sure you know the difference between facts and fantasies. Few books like this manage that neutrality, most tend to just reinforces people's views whether through agreement or argument. Hankinson lets his readers see a raw story, it's a good approach and one that allows you to walk away feeling like you genuinely know more about this high profile case instead of feeling you've been sucked into another media frenzy.
I received a copy through the First Reads programme.
Reading the blurb proved reassuring, it promised a view of the events from Moat's perspective. Hankinson manages something more impressive that that however, instead delivering a careful representation of Moat's many letters and recordings interspersed with asides that add extra facts and information to put his thoughts into context.
The end result is insightful. Moat becomes more human, he seems to display an awareness of his actions, even to an extent accepting some responsibility for the situation. He still clearly feels he has been forced into it all by injustices acted upon him and the actions of others, but he doesn't pretend to be completely pure and innocent either. Hankinson delivers his comments in a minimalistic fashion and with deft timing. They don't seem intended to influence your opinion of Moat, if anything they do the opposite - they're neutralising Moat's speeches, injecting some reality into the image he's painting. Sometimes these comments are repeated, echoing Moat's claims of injustice, sometimes they're different, to deal with another new claim. Consistently they puncture Moat's bubble. What makes them so worthwhile however is that they don't alienate Moat either.
It all creates a delicate balance. You can't escape the violence of this man, no matter how much he pleads. You can't deny his intentions, he freely admits them. But on some level you can see a man who needed help too. Not in the manner he felt he did, but someone who slipped through the cracks - a system that we always hope will work, but that is over stretched and relies on those who need help the most cooperating. Something Moat didn't really manage to do.
By telling the story from Moat's perspective the author skips over the glorified aspects, the aforementioned celebrity involvements and the headline soundbites. It seems fair and honest. It gives a voice to a man who was crying out to be heard while at the same time making sure you know the difference between facts and fantasies. Few books like this manage that neutrality, most tend to just reinforces people's views whether through agreement or argument. Hankinson lets his readers see a raw story, it's a good approach and one that allows you to walk away feeling like you genuinely know more about this high profile case instead of feeling you've been sucked into another media frenzy.
I received a copy through the First Reads programme.
May 24, 2018
I'll be honest when I set out reading this book, I had already deemed Raoul to be a monster. I wasn't at all interested in exploring the mind of a killer, as I felt his actions were inexcusable. But it's my book group read for this month, therefore I gave it a try.
Hankinson has successfully demonstrated that behind a killer there is a victim, desperate to be loved and helped by anyone who is prepared to take the time to listen.
Raoul's story really saddens me, as it's a situation which was easily preventable.
Hankinson has successfully demonstrated that behind a killer there is a victim, desperate to be loved and helped by anyone who is prepared to take the time to listen.
Raoul's story really saddens me, as it's a situation which was easily preventable.
August 12, 2019
Fantastic. I’m not sure how to even put into words how brilliant this was - it’s like Hankinson went inside Moat’s head and manages to put the reader in that position too. Unfathomably sad and intense, this is a book I won’t forget for a long time to come.
January 1, 2020
Extraordinarily good. I raced through this. Reminded me of Gordon Burn's superb book on Fred and Rosemary West - Happy Like Murderers
April 20, 2025
4.5 - ridiculously good. tells the story of the infamous raoul moat in the second person, as if you are inside his mind. fascinating and unsettling in equal measure. loved it!
December 15, 2016
This book is about the last days of the killer Raoul Moat and is written in quite a unique way; told as if YOU are the infamous murderer.
Back in 2010 Raoul Moat was released from prison and proceeded to go on a rampage, attempting to kill his ex girlfriend, shooting dead her new boyfriend and also blinding a police officer by shooting him at point blank range. He than managed to go on the run for a number of days, camping out in the forest with the help of some friends.
This book provides an interesting insight to the (extremely twisted) thought processes the killer had in the run up to and during that murderous spree; without glamorising the events or sympathising in any way. I can remember watching the whole saga unfold on TV and finding the situation dumbfounding, so it was very interesting to discover the background.
The book was an easy read and the unique perspective provides lots of food for thought. A riveting look in to the mind of a paranoid murderous maniac.
Back in 2010 Raoul Moat was released from prison and proceeded to go on a rampage, attempting to kill his ex girlfriend, shooting dead her new boyfriend and also blinding a police officer by shooting him at point blank range. He than managed to go on the run for a number of days, camping out in the forest with the help of some friends.
This book provides an interesting insight to the (extremely twisted) thought processes the killer had in the run up to and during that murderous spree; without glamorising the events or sympathising in any way. I can remember watching the whole saga unfold on TV and finding the situation dumbfounding, so it was very interesting to discover the background.
The book was an easy read and the unique perspective provides lots of food for thought. A riveting look in to the mind of a paranoid murderous maniac.
April 26, 2023
No idea how this passed me by when it was published as I do like a good (and I stress good) true crime, and I’m not sure this could be bettered.
Great writing style, bold chapter names, a shiver inducing end.
And having met several such as Raoul, it’s all so true. But that’s because it is?
Read it!
Great writing style, bold chapter names, a shiver inducing end.
And having met several such as Raoul, it’s all so true. But that’s because it is?
Read it!
June 5, 2025
3.5
it pushes the form of the novel (book?) in ways i have not encountered before. this produces some arresting, beautiful moments- at the beginning and end especially; but also, evidenced best perhaps, in the title itself (what a title!). that said, i think the book is longer than it needs to be and i didn't feel the middle sections added a whole lot.
nonetheless, i think this is an important book- both stylistically and morally- and one which most people would gain something from. many people, no doubt, will have issue with the way in which Hankinson chooses to portray Moat— perhaps the evocation of this discomfort, and the need to sit in it, is the novels whole point.
it pushes the form of the novel (book?) in ways i have not encountered before. this produces some arresting, beautiful moments- at the beginning and end especially; but also, evidenced best perhaps, in the title itself (what a title!). that said, i think the book is longer than it needs to be and i didn't feel the middle sections added a whole lot.
nonetheless, i think this is an important book- both stylistically and morally- and one which most people would gain something from. many people, no doubt, will have issue with the way in which Hankinson chooses to portray Moat— perhaps the evocation of this discomfort, and the need to sit in it, is the novels whole point.
June 29, 2021
this was fucking gripping !!!!!
I felt like it presented Raoul Moat and the whole sorry tale around him really really well - deeply empathetic to all involved, not glorifying or crucifying the man himself, just a profound picture of a sad and unwell person who had been profoundly failed by the state as well as by like our whole epistemologies of class / otherness / gender ...... HIGH recommend (though it is very harrowing huge tws for graphic violence, self harm and suicide, domestic abuse)
I felt like it presented Raoul Moat and the whole sorry tale around him really really well - deeply empathetic to all involved, not glorifying or crucifying the man himself, just a profound picture of a sad and unwell person who had been profoundly failed by the state as well as by like our whole epistemologies of class / otherness / gender ...... HIGH recommend (though it is very harrowing huge tws for graphic violence, self harm and suicide, domestic abuse)
March 14, 2021
This is an absolutely stunning book!
June 1, 2025
A brilliant book about a seriously unwell man. Very clever writing [you've never read a book like this before].
August 14, 2018
Claustrophobic to say the least! The use of the second person POV was spot on. I felt trapped in the mind of Moat, eavesdropping on his agitation, frenzy, and obsessions. Seeing the world from his outlook makes you realize how our societies can unhinge and crush fragile people. It’s simple to demonize a killer but this book shows you Moat’s world view, his logic (or lack of), his heartbreaking loneliness and the insatiable need to be loved.
July 13, 2025
An exhaustive and profound work. Overwhelming and upsetting… insidiously creeps into your brain, disturbs, unsettles and leaves you feeling wrought and depleted.
I would also recommend the Raoul Moat tapes docu on YouTube as it makes you appreciate the writing style and voice the author uses. Somehow he manages to capture Moats rambling, convincing, and distressingly unwell paranoia; including the cadence of his speech and accent. Uncanny.
I would also recommend the Raoul Moat tapes docu on YouTube as it makes you appreciate the writing style and voice the author uses. Somehow he manages to capture Moats rambling, convincing, and distressingly unwell paranoia; including the cadence of his speech and accent. Uncanny.
Read
April 10, 2019Immersing the reader in Moat's self-justifications, You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is both an experiment in empathy and an exploration of the limits of empathy – holding the reader hostage in the echo chamber of an angry and confused man’s head.
Louis Theroux
Brilliantly written … Smart literary non fiction.
Jon Ronson, Author of The Psychopath Test
The media love the idea that a killer’s mind is somehow “impenetrable”, because it gives them carte blanche to fill it up with their sensationalised bullshit … This book does the commendable job of demystifying evil yet again, and showing us the rainy-Tuesday-afternoon-dullness and grinding frustration that can lead some unbalanced people to topple into the abyss.
Will Self
Brilliant, gripping and important. Fans of Gordon Burn have found a new favourite writer.
Will Storr, Author of The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science
We all know how the story ends, but this balled fist of a book reads like a thriller.
Dan Rhodes, Author of When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
Masculinity, media and life on the margins of modern Britain are all put under the microscope via the true and sorry story of outlaw Raoul Moat … His very public disintegration is captured perfectly by Andrew Hankinson.
Benjamin Myers, Author of Beastings and Pig Iron
Claustrophobic, tense and truly original, this gripping account of Raoul Moat’s last days is impossible to put down. Andrew Hankinson has done a superb job in marshalling the source material and presenting it in such a way that the reader sees an unravelling world through Moat’s eyes. The result is utterly unexpected, leaving one torn between feelings of disgust, fear and pity. This is a book that stays with you for a long time.
Dan Davies, Author of In Plain Sight
What sets this book apart is the fact that Hankinson’s narrative, written in the second person, is formed entirely of Moat’s own words. The result is a desperately sad book about masculinity, deprivation and loss.
Rachel Cooke, The Observer
Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is an account of Moat’s last days that, written in the second person and drawing on diary entries and previously unheard tapes, reads like a novel.
Tom Gatti, New Statesman
Writer and reader squat inside a mind that moves from irrational anger and self-pity to despondency … Hankinson deftly assembles [Moat’s] inner workings, lending credibility to his portrait while, beyond the myopic commentary, we know, although we don’t see it, that the outside world is closing in.
Benjamin Myers, New Statesman
An extraordinary study of violence, in all its bathos and banality.
Sarah Ditum, The Spectator
[Hankinson’s] bold non-fiction debut puts you in the gunman’s shoes by weaving an urgent second-person narrative from his on-record thoughts … Intelligently done.
Anthony Cummins, Metro
A powerful portrayal of the banality of violence … a trigger finger of a book: taut, tense and on edge.
Helen Davies, Sunday Times
Hankinson’s approach, a descendant of the literary non-fiction favoured by fellow Northerners Gordon Burn, Blake Morrison and David Peace, allows us to inspect Moat’s bitter logic up close.
Philip Maughan, Financial Times
Taut, uncomfortably thrilling … An unvarnished reconstruction of Moat’s murderous rampage, which allows the facts – and the perpetrator – to speak for themselves … Moat was a tormented man with little mastery over his violent urges. His testimony lays bare a retarded moral sense: right until the end he was largely unrepentant of his actions, elated even, and indifferent or oblivious to the pain he had caused. He was a destroyer, not a hero.
Rob Doyle, Irish Times
A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood… [Hankinson’s] purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society … Moat is presented as an intriguing case study in disintegration, making bad choices then devoting all his intelligence to justifying them in his own head.
Gavin Knight, The Guardian
A remarkable book … [which] gives the reader the chilling, dreadful impression of being inside Moat’s head. Nothing less than compelling.
Irish Independent
In less skilful hands, telling the story through Moat’s eyes could have burnished the outlaw “legend” of Moat. Hankinson does not do that, even though he shows us flashes of humanity … His book does its bit in demystifying evil.
The Times
Chilling … A very unsettling read.
The Herald
Impressive … A powerful, intimate account of a ruined mind.
am Jordison, 3:AM Magazine
Powerfully and claustrophobically effective … [Hankinson] generates just enough sympathy and pathos to make sense of the situation, but no more.
Theo Tait, LRB
I strongly recommend this book. Brilliantly written.
John Niven, Author of Kill Your Friends
The second-person voice is a notoriously tricky one to maintain and Hankinson uses it to great effect … Another strength is the overwhelming sense that Moat is not in control of his own narrative.
The Saturday Paper
Hankinson has pulled off a singular journalistic feat, filtering the sequence of events following Moat’s release from prison through his own eyes. What Moat knows, we know. This is fact, with gelignite at its core.
Weekend Press, Book of the Week
[Hankinson] takes us inside the killer’s head without giving the reader the privilege of distance from which to judge him.
The Guardian
Being in Moat’s angry, paranoid head is an uncomfortable and gut-churning place to be, yet Andrew Hankinson never lets Moat off the hook, challenging his victim mentality and denials of wrong-doing with bald statements of fact. This is a powerful and disquieting book.
Crime Review
One of the most original true crime books to emerge from Britain in the last decade … A tradition in British crime writing is to begin with the shootout and then whizz back to the perp’s childhood to pore over clues that might explain his behavior. Instead, Hankinson keeps us in the eye of the storm — creating what Hollywood calls a ‘contained drama’ that confines the reader inside the protagonist’s unhinged mind. The result is devastating: we see how Moat justifies his actions and ignores those who try to help, with no pesky analysis to interrupt the events … While the author does deftly fact-check Moat’s unreliable narration with clever parentheses, his immersive second-person approach was a brave storytelling decision that has won the book awards in England … [a] grim, high-definition, virtual-reality portrait.
Jeff Maysh, Los Angeles Review of Books
True crime from a radically different perspective.
Kirkus
Haunting and deeply unsettling.
Tobias Carroll, Mystery Tribune
Louis Theroux
Brilliantly written … Smart literary non fiction.
Jon Ronson, Author of The Psychopath Test
The media love the idea that a killer’s mind is somehow “impenetrable”, because it gives them carte blanche to fill it up with their sensationalised bullshit … This book does the commendable job of demystifying evil yet again, and showing us the rainy-Tuesday-afternoon-dullness and grinding frustration that can lead some unbalanced people to topple into the abyss.
Will Self
Brilliant, gripping and important. Fans of Gordon Burn have found a new favourite writer.
Will Storr, Author of The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science
We all know how the story ends, but this balled fist of a book reads like a thriller.
Dan Rhodes, Author of When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
Masculinity, media and life on the margins of modern Britain are all put under the microscope via the true and sorry story of outlaw Raoul Moat … His very public disintegration is captured perfectly by Andrew Hankinson.
Benjamin Myers, Author of Beastings and Pig Iron
Claustrophobic, tense and truly original, this gripping account of Raoul Moat’s last days is impossible to put down. Andrew Hankinson has done a superb job in marshalling the source material and presenting it in such a way that the reader sees an unravelling world through Moat’s eyes. The result is utterly unexpected, leaving one torn between feelings of disgust, fear and pity. This is a book that stays with you for a long time.
Dan Davies, Author of In Plain Sight
What sets this book apart is the fact that Hankinson’s narrative, written in the second person, is formed entirely of Moat’s own words. The result is a desperately sad book about masculinity, deprivation and loss.
Rachel Cooke, The Observer
Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is an account of Moat’s last days that, written in the second person and drawing on diary entries and previously unheard tapes, reads like a novel.
Tom Gatti, New Statesman
Writer and reader squat inside a mind that moves from irrational anger and self-pity to despondency … Hankinson deftly assembles [Moat’s] inner workings, lending credibility to his portrait while, beyond the myopic commentary, we know, although we don’t see it, that the outside world is closing in.
Benjamin Myers, New Statesman
An extraordinary study of violence, in all its bathos and banality.
Sarah Ditum, The Spectator
[Hankinson’s] bold non-fiction debut puts you in the gunman’s shoes by weaving an urgent second-person narrative from his on-record thoughts … Intelligently done.
Anthony Cummins, Metro
A powerful portrayal of the banality of violence … a trigger finger of a book: taut, tense and on edge.
Helen Davies, Sunday Times
Hankinson’s approach, a descendant of the literary non-fiction favoured by fellow Northerners Gordon Burn, Blake Morrison and David Peace, allows us to inspect Moat’s bitter logic up close.
Philip Maughan, Financial Times
Taut, uncomfortably thrilling … An unvarnished reconstruction of Moat’s murderous rampage, which allows the facts – and the perpetrator – to speak for themselves … Moat was a tormented man with little mastery over his violent urges. His testimony lays bare a retarded moral sense: right until the end he was largely unrepentant of his actions, elated even, and indifferent or oblivious to the pain he had caused. He was a destroyer, not a hero.
Rob Doyle, Irish Times
A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood… [Hankinson’s] purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society … Moat is presented as an intriguing case study in disintegration, making bad choices then devoting all his intelligence to justifying them in his own head.
Gavin Knight, The Guardian
A remarkable book … [which] gives the reader the chilling, dreadful impression of being inside Moat’s head. Nothing less than compelling.
Irish Independent
In less skilful hands, telling the story through Moat’s eyes could have burnished the outlaw “legend” of Moat. Hankinson does not do that, even though he shows us flashes of humanity … His book does its bit in demystifying evil.
The Times
Chilling … A very unsettling read.
The Herald
Impressive … A powerful, intimate account of a ruined mind.
am Jordison, 3:AM Magazine
Powerfully and claustrophobically effective … [Hankinson] generates just enough sympathy and pathos to make sense of the situation, but no more.
Theo Tait, LRB
I strongly recommend this book. Brilliantly written.
John Niven, Author of Kill Your Friends
The second-person voice is a notoriously tricky one to maintain and Hankinson uses it to great effect … Another strength is the overwhelming sense that Moat is not in control of his own narrative.
The Saturday Paper
Hankinson has pulled off a singular journalistic feat, filtering the sequence of events following Moat’s release from prison through his own eyes. What Moat knows, we know. This is fact, with gelignite at its core.
Weekend Press, Book of the Week
[Hankinson] takes us inside the killer’s head without giving the reader the privilege of distance from which to judge him.
The Guardian
Being in Moat’s angry, paranoid head is an uncomfortable and gut-churning place to be, yet Andrew Hankinson never lets Moat off the hook, challenging his victim mentality and denials of wrong-doing with bald statements of fact. This is a powerful and disquieting book.
Crime Review
One of the most original true crime books to emerge from Britain in the last decade … A tradition in British crime writing is to begin with the shootout and then whizz back to the perp’s childhood to pore over clues that might explain his behavior. Instead, Hankinson keeps us in the eye of the storm — creating what Hollywood calls a ‘contained drama’ that confines the reader inside the protagonist’s unhinged mind. The result is devastating: we see how Moat justifies his actions and ignores those who try to help, with no pesky analysis to interrupt the events … While the author does deftly fact-check Moat’s unreliable narration with clever parentheses, his immersive second-person approach was a brave storytelling decision that has won the book awards in England … [a] grim, high-definition, virtual-reality portrait.
Jeff Maysh, Los Angeles Review of Books
True crime from a radically different perspective.
Kirkus
Haunting and deeply unsettling.
Tobias Carroll, Mystery Tribune
March 21, 2022
Picked this book up from a book fair because I thought the cover was cool and thought it would be a lil self help book. This is so far from that.
The book is written by journalist Andrew Hankinson who writes from the perspective of Raoul Moat, who was a serial killer from Britian who shot his ex-girlfriend and killed his ex's new boyfriend, blinded a policeman and started a giant manhunt killing spree in 2010. So it's fictional but based on real life events and first hand recaps from Moat himself through letters and voice memos that he left for the public.
It tells the story of the mind of the killer in such a gripping and eye-opening way, you feel sympathy and anger for Moat. Ironically it's written like a love story, Moat's obsession and love for his ex Sam drove him to do such horrible things. Things that even he doesn't want to do but he doesn't know how to handle his emotions and hate for life (police, judicial systems, other people) etc. His justifications for his actions as he continues his spree is so evil and yet not so hard to believe. His reasoning behind wanting to show society some of their systematic faults, comes from a place of goodness which is what makes this story so upsetting.
Each chapter of the book starts as, "You Will Die in 7 Days", "You Will Die in 6 Days" .... so you're really taken into the mind and journey of Moat has he begins his killing spree and it's mind blowing what that process is like. The negotiation dialogue at the end is heartbreaking. I can't fathom having to converse with someone who has nothing else to loose and convince them to not kill themselves.
The recap on the back of the book sums it up pretty well, "This book does does the job of demystifying evil and showing us dullness and grinding frustration can lead some unbalance people to topple into the abyss".
Hankinsons back and forth commentary through Moat's internal dialogue shows how the mind can trick itself to believing what it wants to believe. Through this Hankinson paints a pretty unbiased view as to how several systems (doctors/family/friends) played a part in this tragedy - who really is to blame?
The book is written by journalist Andrew Hankinson who writes from the perspective of Raoul Moat, who was a serial killer from Britian who shot his ex-girlfriend and killed his ex's new boyfriend, blinded a policeman and started a giant manhunt killing spree in 2010. So it's fictional but based on real life events and first hand recaps from Moat himself through letters and voice memos that he left for the public.
It tells the story of the mind of the killer in such a gripping and eye-opening way, you feel sympathy and anger for Moat. Ironically it's written like a love story, Moat's obsession and love for his ex Sam drove him to do such horrible things. Things that even he doesn't want to do but he doesn't know how to handle his emotions and hate for life (police, judicial systems, other people) etc. His justifications for his actions as he continues his spree is so evil and yet not so hard to believe. His reasoning behind wanting to show society some of their systematic faults, comes from a place of goodness which is what makes this story so upsetting.
Each chapter of the book starts as, "You Will Die in 7 Days", "You Will Die in 6 Days" .... so you're really taken into the mind and journey of Moat has he begins his killing spree and it's mind blowing what that process is like. The negotiation dialogue at the end is heartbreaking. I can't fathom having to converse with someone who has nothing else to loose and convince them to not kill themselves.
The recap on the back of the book sums it up pretty well, "This book does does the job of demystifying evil and showing us dullness and grinding frustration can lead some unbalance people to topple into the abyss".
Hankinsons back and forth commentary through Moat's internal dialogue shows how the mind can trick itself to believing what it wants to believe. Through this Hankinson paints a pretty unbiased view as to how several systems (doctors/family/friends) played a part in this tragedy - who really is to blame?
April 21, 2018
[2016] The choice to tell Raoul Moat's story in the second person, so it's like the author is talking to Raoul, really worked for me. The author states in the author's note that his aim was, "to stay within Raoul Moat's mind," so it makes sense that he only tells us things that Raoul Moat would have known. This necessarily means that there things missing (e.g. the details of the manhunt, how extensive it was, how they found Moat, etc.), and yet the story still feels complete in and of itself. Will Self on the back cover blurb says that this book is "showing us the rainy-Tuesday-afternoon-dullness and grinding frustration that can lead some unbalanced people to topple into the abyss," which I think describes it well.
January 11, 2019
A fascinating read, the author manages (as best as anyone can) to get inside someone else's head and display the hope and fears of someone who turned out to become a killer. I do think that this book does manage to humanise Moat without absolving him of guilt. A sad and possibly preventable story that makes you think about the fact that anyone could turn out like this given the circumstances of their life and upbringing.
August 31, 2021
Started out really strong - it's a striking and unsettling concept - but became a bit one-note by the end. Reads like a twisted Choose-Your-Own-Adventure with a predetermined and horrific ending, and you're powerless to alter the course.
September 6, 2022
Completely tragic and enthralling, without the morbid fascination and glamour that afflicts the genre of true crime. A revelation of when something goes wrong and the systems and people don’t exist to fix it.
March 18, 2021
What a book. If you're at all interested in true crime or abnormal psychology, I highly recommend it. 5 stars.
March 14, 2022
Devoured this. A tour de force.
July 30, 2023
Spent my day inside the head of Raoul Moat. You know what they say, a Sunday well spent brings a week of content!
September 28, 2025
Part Taxi Driver, part Open Throat, part Shy. Surprising lack of Gazza.
October 29, 2024
emotional whiplash? very conflicted + lots of thoughts.
July 6, 2025
Read the whole thing in less than 24 hours. Fantastic, no notes.
December 3, 2024
A real odd read this one, never read anything like it. A retry stressful read too, but somehow good
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