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A review by bookmadjo
This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman
4.0
This book intrigued me from the very start and I was thrilled when Gallic Books gave me the opportunity to read it. Many thanks to Gallic Books for my gifted copy of the book. Fiona Kidman has written a book that is part fact, part fictionalised accounts about one of the last criminals to be sentenced to death in New Zealand in the 1950s.
Based upon the documentation from the trial, and additional research, this book is a fictional account of the real life of Albert Laurence Black, or Paddy as he was known by friends, who moved as a young man, to New Zealand, in search of a better life than the life he had in Belfast with his parents and younger brother. It follows his arrival in New Zealand, and what lead to him to becoming a caretaker of a boarding house where his path crossed with that of Alan Jacques, who he was eventually convicted of murdering, and sentenced to death.
With my own legal background, I was horrified to read of the trial, and how it was affected by the prejudices of New Zealand society, where there were concerns that the morality of young people was being affected by the influx of immigrants and outward influences, such as the writing of Mickey Spillane, and rock and roll music. It is clear that this is a story of a young man who was a victim of a miscarriage of justice, having been judged more harshly as an immigrant. Not all witnesses were called and there were other errors in the trial which suggested that his treatment in the courts was inadequate. It also seems strange and sadly disappointing that some 60 years later, immigrants are still unfairly judged the world over, and castigated simply because they have arrived in a new country in search of a better life.
I found this book was sympathetically written but it left me feeling so angry at the injustice of it all, which I suppose is the intent. Applying laws here in the present day, at the very most Paddy Black would have been convicted of manslaughter, and not murder, and that in itself is an injustice. He was the penultimate person to be sentenced to death in New Zealand, and we can but hope that such injustices are a thing of the past. This was a fascinating read, and is a book I can heartily recommend.
Based upon the documentation from the trial, and additional research, this book is a fictional account of the real life of Albert Laurence Black, or Paddy as he was known by friends, who moved as a young man, to New Zealand, in search of a better life than the life he had in Belfast with his parents and younger brother. It follows his arrival in New Zealand, and what lead to him to becoming a caretaker of a boarding house where his path crossed with that of Alan Jacques, who he was eventually convicted of murdering, and sentenced to death.
With my own legal background, I was horrified to read of the trial, and how it was affected by the prejudices of New Zealand society, where there were concerns that the morality of young people was being affected by the influx of immigrants and outward influences, such as the writing of Mickey Spillane, and rock and roll music. It is clear that this is a story of a young man who was a victim of a miscarriage of justice, having been judged more harshly as an immigrant. Not all witnesses were called and there were other errors in the trial which suggested that his treatment in the courts was inadequate. It also seems strange and sadly disappointing that some 60 years later, immigrants are still unfairly judged the world over, and castigated simply because they have arrived in a new country in search of a better life.
I found this book was sympathetically written but it left me feeling so angry at the injustice of it all, which I suppose is the intent. Applying laws here in the present day, at the very most Paddy Black would have been convicted of manslaughter, and not murder, and that in itself is an injustice. He was the penultimate person to be sentenced to death in New Zealand, and we can but hope that such injustices are a thing of the past. This was a fascinating read, and is a book I can heartily recommend.