The Search for Anne Perry - Hardcover

"A pleasure for Perry's loyal fans and a book that is likely to win her some new ones as well . . . Drayton tells a beguiling story of an author's climb to the best-seller lists and how a secret she would rather keep hidden was publicly made known." --Kirkus Reviews

"A solid, well-documented literary biography. Drayton . . . examines Perry's many novels in light of her earlier life, showing how some of her books' themes reflect the turmoil and violence of her younger years and, in effect, showing how, though Perry might have left Hulme's identity behind, the environment that shaped her younger life has also shaped her literary life."--Booklist

"The Search for Anne Perry is a terrific biography--and absolutely ingeniously structured." --Terry Castle, cultural commentator and author of The Professor and Other Writings

"Important . . . revelatory, insightful, wonderfully researched, and powerfully written."--Weekend Herald (New Zealand)

"A deeper and more important story than it's ever seemed before."--Toronto Star

"Builds a complex picture of the world of past crime, public success, work and private pain. . . . Drayton makes her case with insight and compassion." --New Zealand Listener

"A fascinating book." --Herald on Sunday

"Daring . . . Drayton is allowed an unprecedented level of access into the world of Anne Perry, and weaves in both her life and the lives in her crime novels to illustrate the story of a truly fascinating character." --Time Out

"As riveting as the best of acclaimed author Anne Perry's own fiction . . . [Drayton] opens windows." --Vancouver Sun

A New York Times Best Seller!

In 1994, director Peter Jackson released the movie Heavenly Creatures, based on a famous 1950s matricide committed in New Zealand by two teenage girls embroiled in an obsessive relationship. The movie launched Jackson’s international career. It also forever changed the life of Anne Perry, an award-winning, bestselling crime writer, who at the time of the movie’s release was publicly outed at Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers. A new light was now cast, not only on Anne’s life but also on her novels, which feature gruesome and violent deaths and confront dark issues, including infanticide and incest.

Acclaimed literary biographer Joanne Drayton was given unparalleled access to Anne Perry, her friends, relatives, colleagues, and archives to complete this book. She intersperses the story of her life with an examination of her writing, drawing parallels between Perry’s own experiences and her characters and storylines. Anne Perry’s books deal with miscarriages of justice, family secrets exposed, punishment, redemption, and forgiveness, themes made all the more poignant in light of her past. She has sold 25 million books worldwide and published in 15 different languages, yet she will now forever be known as a murderer who became a writer of murder stories. The Search for Anne Perry is a gripping account of a life, and provides understanding of the girl Anne was, the adult she became, her compulsion to write, and her view of the world.