Kidnapping File: The Graeme Thorne Case

Children's Literature - Barbara L. Talcroft

From England comes this "Crime Solvers" series for mystery addicts and fans of true crime shows. In eleven spreads, with photographs and maps, each book explores a specific case, describing the crime, the gathering of evidence, the hunt for perpetrators, and their consequent trials and sentencing. This volume details the 1960 kidnapping and subsequent murder of eight-year-old Graeme Thorne of Bondi, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Graeme's lucky family had just won a Sydney lottery; about a month later, Graeme was taken from a street corner on his way to school. One interesting thing about the case is that it was Australia's first kidnapping. Each spread follows Australian crime solvers at work, with sidebars on various techniques used: in this case, fingerprint matching and forensic analysis of fungi, hairs, and sand found on a blanket. Help from observant members of the public enabled police to track and arrest the suspect in Ceylon as he tried to escape to England; an autopsy revealed that Graeme's death was a murder. A "Case Closed" section shows a flow chart of events, while a final chapter, "Crime Solving Up Close," provides more information about retrieving trace evidence, estimating time of death, and checking fingerprints against a database. The series, with its no-nonsense style and abundance of color and black-and-white photos, should prove absorbing for young detectives, though parents and teachers may decide this tragic story is too disturbing for younger readers. The series consultant is a lecturer in forensic science at England's Staffordshire University. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft