New book on Lord Lucan offers a killer punchline

As Graham Dwyer demonstrated, there  is an insatiable appetite for murder trials, especially when they involve people of privilege and leave endless questions unanswered. In the aftermath of the 40th anniversary of his disappearance, Caroline O’Doherty pores over a new book on Lord Lucan.

NOTHING fascinates like a good murder. Public interest in a grisly demise is insatiable and literature, cinema, television and news media all respond accordingly.

All the better if the murder is real, but bears the hallmarks of fiction — larger-than-life characters, doomed love affairs; a status, class, or rank well above the common low-life associated with such ghastly goings-on, and a chief suspect who has vanished into thin air.