| A Child's Book of True Crime | |
| Author: | Chloe Hooper |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | Australia |
| Genre: | Crime novel |
| Publisher: | Penguin |
| Isbn: | 0-7432-2512-0 |
| Release Date: | March 19, 2002 |
| Pages: | 238 |
A Child's Book of True Crime is a novel by Australian author Chloe Hooper, published in 2001 by Penguin. It was shortlisted for the 2002 Women's Prize for Fiction.
Kate is a young schoolteacher working in a small community in Tasmania. She begins an affair with the parent of one of her students. Some chapters tell an alternate version of the same story, a murder investigation written in the style of a children's book.
A Child's Book of True Crime received mostly positive reviews. The Guardian gave the novel an average rating of 8 out of 10 based on reviews from multiple British newspapers.[1] The Guardian described it as "a Russian doll of a novel" and praised it as "beguiling",[2] while The New Yorker said itwas "suspenseful and self-conscious".[3] The A.V. Club gave a mixed review, stating that the short book is "padded by redundant passages", while saying parts of the book were "vivid and witty".[4]
A Child's Book of True Crime was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2002.[5]