When convicted killer and self-proclaimed philosopher Lee Bolton was sentenced to life imprisonment, few expected his story to continue. After all, his previous works – Lee Bolton’s Guide to Adultery, Lee Bolton’s Guide to Marriage, and Lee Bolton’s Guide to Sex – had already scandalised readers with their dark wit and unapologetic immorality.
But on the day he was being transported back to prison following his guilty verdict, Bolton’s van was ambushed. The attacker was never officially identified, though witnesses claimed it was a woman with red hair. Bolton escaped custody with the help of his long-time nemesis and possible lover – the infamous serial killer Frankie Clarke, also known as The Alphabet Killer.
Six days later, Bolton was shot and killed by police in a remote village near the Welsh border.
When officers returned to his cell, they found a battered folder hidden behind a loose brick. Inside were over eighty handwritten pages, meticulously edited in blue biro and sarcasm. The title page read:
LEE BOLTON’S GUIDE TO MURDER: A STUDY IN SELF-DELUSION AND SHARP OBJECTS.
This is that manuscript.
Part confession, part philosophical treatise, and part grotesque self-help manual, Lee Bolton’s Guide to Murder is his final attempt to intellectualise the one subject he finally mastered. From state-sanctioned killing to capital punishment, from the morality of war to time-travel hypotheticals (‘Would you go back in time to murder Hitler? Stalin? Your mother-in-law? Jake?’), Bolton explores the ethics of homicide with the tone of a man who believes murder can be justified if it’s interesting enough to write about.
With characteristic arrogance, he examines his own crimes, romanticises his motives, and wonders aloud whether ‘justice’ is just another form of murder performed in uniform. It’s clever, caustic, and entirely devoid of remorse – a study in how far intellect can stretch before it snaps.
Both hilarious and horrifying, this posthumous ‘guide’ is less an apology than an autopsy – of a man, a mind, and a morality long past saving.
Frankie Clarke remains at large. See The Adulterer's Legacy (coming soon).
Genre: Mystery
But on the day he was being transported back to prison following his guilty verdict, Bolton’s van was ambushed. The attacker was never officially identified, though witnesses claimed it was a woman with red hair. Bolton escaped custody with the help of his long-time nemesis and possible lover – the infamous serial killer Frankie Clarke, also known as The Alphabet Killer.
Six days later, Bolton was shot and killed by police in a remote village near the Welsh border.
When officers returned to his cell, they found a battered folder hidden behind a loose brick. Inside were over eighty handwritten pages, meticulously edited in blue biro and sarcasm. The title page read:
LEE BOLTON’S GUIDE TO MURDER: A STUDY IN SELF-DELUSION AND SHARP OBJECTS.
This is that manuscript.
Part confession, part philosophical treatise, and part grotesque self-help manual, Lee Bolton’s Guide to Murder is his final attempt to intellectualise the one subject he finally mastered. From state-sanctioned killing to capital punishment, from the morality of war to time-travel hypotheticals (‘Would you go back in time to murder Hitler? Stalin? Your mother-in-law? Jake?’), Bolton explores the ethics of homicide with the tone of a man who believes murder can be justified if it’s interesting enough to write about.
With characteristic arrogance, he examines his own crimes, romanticises his motives, and wonders aloud whether ‘justice’ is just another form of murder performed in uniform. It’s clever, caustic, and entirely devoid of remorse – a study in how far intellect can stretch before it snaps.
Both hilarious and horrifying, this posthumous ‘guide’ is less an apology than an autopsy – of a man, a mind, and a morality long past saving.
Frankie Clarke remains at large. See The Adulterer's Legacy (coming soon).
Genre: Mystery