A Thread of Violence
A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder
Mark O’Connell spent months interviewing Malcolm Macarthur, who killed two strangers in Dublin in 1982 in a case that brought down a government, served his sentence and returned to the city. The book is as much about the writer’s discomfort at befriending him, and about what a murderer’s own account of himself is worth, as about the crime.
Recommended by 1 Person
Kate Summerscale
A Thread of Violence is about a man called Malcolm Macarthur who murdered two people in Dublin in the 1980s. He was sentenced to a life term but had been released and was living in Dublin again when Mark O’Connell thought of writing a book about him. O’Connell met him, befriended him and interviewed him over a long period.
Interview · March 2025
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