About this Book

In 1954, Dennis Nilsen is 9 years old. He is almost swept out to sea, where he thinks he imagines his dead grandfather reaching out to him. Instead, he wakes up later on the shore, completely naked and covered in a sticky, white substance.
The combination of death and sex in the growing boy's mind grows stronger at every turn. His fantasy life begins to quickly spiral out of control through adolescence and early adulthood. By the time he is in his 20s, he is regularly masturbating to the image of a dead or unconscious body in his mind; using a mirror, he is able to pretend that the dead body is his own.
In 1983, Dennis Nilsen is 38 years old. He is arrested for the murders of 15 young men, six of which he is convicted for. Boy Under Water leads us through the story between these two moments in his life.
Nilsen is called the Muswell Hill Murderer, the Kindly Killer, and the Monochrome Man. Boy Under Water takes us on that journey to discover the nuances and psychological challenges that lead him to murder for the first time, and then to make it a habit, discovering the man behind the sensationalised names.
Through each victim, and through the men that got away from his murderous attempts, we see a building frustration that Nilsen cannot let go of. Whenever his emotions spiral out of control, a body ends up on the floor of his flat in the morning. Each of the twelve recognised victims is explored in depth, along with additional moments from his life that build up his personality. Most shocking of all, perhaps, is his ability to compartmentalise his life to be a murderer at home and a cheerful civil service worker at his job.