Book description
Norfolk Island, Easter Sunday, 2002 ... the first murder in 150 years
and everyone is a suspect ...Easter Sunday, 2002. On sleepy Norfolk
Island, the faithful are returning from morning service at St Barnabas
Chapel, while tourists prepare for another day of sightseeing and
shopping. Janelle Patton has just finished her breakfast shift as
restaurant manager at the Castaway Hotel. A few hours later, she will be
found dead, her mutilated body covered in black plastic and hidden near
a waterfall on the other side of the island. It is the first murder here
in 150 years and everyone is a suspect. The killing of Janelle Patton
exposes a dark undercurrent in a community that prides itself on
friendliness and upstanding moral values. The locals are fiercely
protective of each other and suspicious of strangers. The police carry
out an exercise unique in criminal history - the mass fingerprinting of
more than 1200 people who were on the island when the murder took place
- yet they fail to find the killer. Islanders deny there is a conspiracy
of silence, but few will talk on the record. Four years on, a man is
arrested in New Zealand. Detectives have found evidence linking the
killing of Janelle Patton to Glenn McNeill, a chef who was working on
the island at the time of her death. But the drama is only just
beginning. How could a devoted husband and father with two small
children be capable of such an horrendous crime? Can McNeill be
guaranteed a fair trial on an island where ancestral loyalties go back
to the mutiny on the Bounty? How can the court select an impartial jury
from a population of around only 1500 people? In March 2007, the verdict
is handed down: guilty. But will the mystery surrounding the brutal
slaying of the young Sydney hotel worker ever be satisfactorily
explained? Roger Maynard's book is the definitive account of this
fascinating murder mystery, based on his own research conducted on
Norfolk Island over the past five years and close examination of the
committal proceedings and subsequent trial. He looks at McNeill's
background in New Zealand and includes interviews with people who knew
him well. Like Maynard's investigations into the backpacker murders and
the disappearance of Peter Falconio, The Fatal Flaw is a riveting read.
Roger Maynard has spent nearly four decades working as a journalist and
foreign corrrespondent. After starting his career in local newspapers in
Britain he joined the BBC as a reporter and worked extensively for radio
and television in the UK, including four years on Radio Four's flagship
current affairs program Today. Since making his home in Australia in
l987 he has worked as Sydney correspondent for The Times, The Guardian,
ITN and CNBC Asia. He has covered many of the world's top stories
including the crisis in East Timor, the Three Mile Island nuclear scare,
the clash between the Rainbow Warrior and the French navy in the
Pacific, and the Tampa affair. For many years he was London
correspondent for a chain of Australian radio stations including 2UE in
Sydney, 6PR in Perth and 4BC in Brisbane, and has reported on general
elections in Britain and Australia. His interviewees have included John
Howard, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Margaret Thatcher, Charlton Heston,
Omar Sharif, Richard Branson, Jeffrey Archer and countless other big
names. Maynard is author of MILAT, the best-selling book about the
serial killer responsible for the horrific backpacker murders, Where's
Peter?, an exhaustive investigation into the events surrounding the
disappearance of Peter Falconio in the remote outback, and Life At The
Top, a portrait of some of Australia's best known business leaders.
