Gerry McCann's bedside reading: The Interpretation of Murder

Still taken from PJ video of Gerry's bedside table, at the Vista Mar villa

The Interpretation of Murder

Nigel Moore
03 January 2009
Thanks to Dr Martin Roberts for quotes

The PJ video recorded that Gerry McCanns' choice of bedtime reading, whilst staying at the Vista Mar villa, included 'The Interpretation of Murder' by Jed Rubenfeld.

A seemingly inappropriate choice of book for a man who believed his daughter had been abducted and could quite possibly be in the hands of a predatory paedophile.

However, when one considers some quotes from the book, this may not have been such a peculiar choice of reading material:

"The announcement was pure invention, but it was believed, and therefore within three weeks it was so. Mr Banwell had mastered the great truth that truth itself, like buildings, can be manufactured." (p.9).

"I cannot be expected to solve a murder if the evidence is trampled and tampered with before I arrive." (p.22).

"In this heat, he explained, decomposition would rapidly set in if the corpse was not refrigerated at once." (p.28).

"Littlemore studied the bedroom. 'Miss Acton', he said, 'how do you think the man got in here last night?'

'Well, he must have – why, I don't know.'

It was, Littlemore reflected, certainly a puzzle. There were only two doors to the Acton house, the front and the back... ....Could the intruder have climbed in through a window?" (p.299).