I enjoyed this book - at first. I identified with this relationship with Tim as a teenager and also the sudden sense of loss when they parted. Also with his time as a rent boy. I could never quite see why he fell under Catherine's spell so much though.
One or two phrases caught my eye.
"rolls down the throat like Spanish semen" Is Spanish semen so different from any other? (Maybe I should take that long promised trip to Sitges!)
And I liked the quotation in the book,
‘There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.’
Also this one touched a chord with me.
"Think of all the people who never feel a millionth of what you’ve felt for Tim. They’re missing out. They’re half-wits, effectively. The sort of people who end up reading the Daily Mail. We can only pity them."


SPOILER ALERT!



The end of the book let it down for me. Why did Catherine betray him? Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. There seemed no point. Having done that, she then had unparalleled influence in the prison system to afford him a life of luxury once locked up. After which she assured him that all his wealth would be waiting for him after eventual release. Several flaws in that. As a serial killer he would no doubt have received a whole life sentence.
I have some familiarity with the UK prison system. While not like Russia, it is quite brutal. (The German Supreme Court recently - 2023 - refused to extradite to the UK because the prisons are inhumane). There is no way JD could have received all those goodies. Even if they had reached the prison they would have 'got lost'. Also lifers get moved around a lot so he would lose everything at the first such move. The book lost any credibility for me at the end. A disappointment.