London-born crime author Anne Perry, who was jailed as a teenager for murdering her friend’s mother, has died at the age of 84, her agent has confirmed. The writer – who was known for her Pitt and Monk detective novel series, alongside her dark past that was turned into the Oscar-nominated Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures – died on Monday in Los Angeles, where she had been living.
A statement from Ki Agency said: “Anne was a loyal and loving friend, and her writing was driven by her fierce commitment to raising awareness around social injustice. Many readers have been moved by her empathy for people backed into impossible situations, or overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. Her characters inspired much love among her fans, and comforted many readers who were going through tough times themselves.”
It announced her death along with the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York and Ken Sherman & Associates in Los Angeles, saying she died on April 10. In 1954 at the age of 15, Perry, who was born Juliet Hulme, was convicted along with her friend Pauline Parker of murder.
The pair bludgeoned Parker’s mother to death with a brick in a stocking in Christchurch, New Zealand – becoming two of the country’s most notorious killers. The events would later be the inspiration behind director Jackson’s 1994 psychological drama, starring Kate Winslet in a break-out role and Melanie Lynskey, which received an Academy Award nod for screenplay writing.
As both Perry and Parker were under 18 at the time of the killing, neither could be sentenced to death and they were instead subject to “detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure”, according to the New Zealand government website. After serving a five-year prison sentence, Perry was released and changed her name, returning to the UK and later beginning her writing career.
It began with the publishing of The Cater Street Hangman in 1979, the first in a series of books featuring Victorian policeman Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte. She had this month released another novel in the sequence called The Fourth Enemy and in 2017 released 21 Days, which follows the couple’s son Daniel.
Perry’s second series of crime novels revolve around private detective William Monk and volatile nurse Hester Latterly. In 2000, she won the Edgar Award, which celebrates mystery novel writers, with Heroes, a short story about a murder that takes place in the trenches during the First World War.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
She had been working on more titles in both the Pitt and Monk series and her works have regularly appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Perry was born in Blackheath, London, in October 1938, and moved first to the Bahamas at the age of eight before originally settling in New Zealand.
She said on her website that she had been fostered as a child due to illness and missed a lot of school as a result. Perry, who would return to the UK when she was in her 20s to live in Hexham, Northumberland, was also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
She would also publish the mystical novels Come Armageddon and Tathea. Perry, who has also lived in southern California and Portmahomack near Inverness in Scotland, is survived by her brother Dr Jonathan Hulme and his family.
