To Catch a Killer by Peter Bleksley

I first came across the author, a former undercover officer for London’s Metropolitan Police, when reading his autobiography, The Gangbuster. Since then I’ve read his contributions to other works, such as Neil Wood’s Drug Wars, and followed him on Twitter. Most readers might be familiar with him from his contribution to the show Hunted, though I confess to never having watched it myself. 

After his autobiography, The Gangbuster, the author wrote another book examining unsolved murders. Titled On The Run, each chapter focused on a different unsolved killing. To Catch a Killer is his third book and was supposed to follow the format of the previous title - examine a number of murders - but in the end chose just one, the shooting of Alistair Wilson on his doorstep in Nairn in 2004.

I was not aware of the Alistair Wilson’s killing until reading this book and the author does a good job of summarising and introducing his readers to this appalling crime. Alistair was a banker and family man with a wife and two children. On the evening of 28^thNovember a man called at his house asking for him. Alistair’s wife, Veronica, answered the door and called her husband. When Alistair came to the door the man handed him an envelope which was empty. After discussing this with his wife who had gone back upstairs, Alistair returned to the front door where he was shot dead.  This murder has never been solved and there has never been an arrest.

I’ve seen some reviewers on Amazon say the author spends as much time discussing his own career and credentials as he does the murder. This in my opinion is unfair. There are some chapters where he discusses his own career, but they are solely to give his fascination with the Alistair Wilson killing context and the vast majority of the book is focused on the crime and theories as to its motive. 

The theories as to why Alistair was killed are numerous, though most focus on his work in banking. The author examines all the various theories and meets with sources to discuss them and garner new information. Unfortunately, Police Scotland (the murder occurred in the jurisdiction of the Northern Constabulary, but all Scottish police constabularies have since been amalgamated), Alistair’s employer, the Bank of Scotland, and his wife, Veronica Wilson, all refused to be interviewed which complicates matters. That said, the author, makes a good effort at getting to the truth and while he doesn’t solve the crime (a big ask for any book) he does come up with some interesting ideas.

If I have one criticism of To Catch a Killer, it’s that at some points the narrative is a bit too chatty and informal. Perhaps as an ex-police officer he was keen not to avoid “bureaucratise”, that dry language police and other officials tend to use when making public pronouncements, or perhaps he was just trying to be more approachable. To my mind though, a book like this desires a more authoritative journalistic tone. I stress this is not a criticism of the book’s content, or the author, just a minor quibble with the tone of voice it’s written in.

That said, To Catch a Killer is a good account and examination of an intriguing and disturbing case and one I’m grateful to the author for bringing to my attention. Apparently, Peter Bleksley is set to write another book examining another case. On the strength of To Catch a Killer, I look forward to reading it.

4 out of 5 stars