You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life: You Are Raoul Moat

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After we learn about Moat’s life and he’s carried out the shootings, the book sags in the middle as Moat’s directionless ramblings repeat his problems: how his ex means the world to him, his paranoid delusions of the police persecuting him, blaming his bad childhood, and on and on. I understand why this lengthy passage is included – to show us the mundanity of a so-called monster – but re-reading information we learned earlier in the book is still an extremely onerous part of an otherwise fast-moving and gripping read. The book's main theme is the outdated ideology of hardman masculinity. Moat had a history of violence and anger. His descriptions of bodybuilding, cage fighting, and working as a bouncer are a glimpse into a self destructive and appalling world.

really gonna have to stop reading such intense books in such a short space of time and I NEED TO STOP STAYING UP TIL 3.30 TO READ BOOKS TOO She’s honest, faithful and decent. You write that there isn’t much space to put all the good stuff in here. For the bad stuff you put, Keeping us inside Moat’s head means that we barely hear about his victims or their families. Is this something that concerns you?A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood … [Hankinson’s] purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society … Moat is presented as an intriguing case study in disintegration, making bad choices then devoting all his intelligence to justifying them in his own head. It tells the story of the mind of the killer in such a gripping and eye-opening way, you feel sympathy and anger for Moat. Ironically it's written like a love story, Moat's obsession and love for his ex Sam drove him to do such horrible things. Things that even he doesn't want to do but he doesn't know how to handle his emotions and hate for life (police, judicial systems, other people) etc. His justifications for his actions as he continues his spree is so evil and yet not so hard to believe. His reasoning behind wanting to show society some of their systematic faults, comes from a place of goodness which is what makes this story so upsetting.

I had a lots of information to draw on. I attended the trial of Moat’s accomplices [Karl Ness and Qhurum Awan, both now serving life sentences] and the inquest for Moat. I couldn’t attend the inquest for Christopher Brown, but I had a written version of the coroner’s summary. I had transcripts of the hours and hours of tapes he recorded [on a Dictaphone] when he was on the run in Northumberland, and there were also some tapes he had made before he went to prison that I was able to listen to. Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and a Northern Writers Award These are the last days of Raoul Moat.Don’t let anyone talk you out of believing in yourself and what you’re capable of. It doesn’t matter who you are — you have something amazing to offer this world.” – Unknown