BEYOND ALL REASON

This intricate re-creation of the February 1993 murder of three-year-old James Bulger by two 10-year-old boys in Bottle, England, is ugly, painful reading. Grisly and excessively detailed, the book attempts a delicate balance between potential sensationalism and informed, balanced journalism. To Smith's credit, it works. ``By way of recovering a perspective,'' he presents a long history of child crime to demonstrate that it is not new, not a result of the television age, not an ``emblem of decay'' in morals and values. Smith precisely retraces the path of Denise Bulger and her little boy, James, as they went shopping at the New Strand Mall nearly two years ago. He picks up with Jon Venables and Bobby Thompson at the moment they decide to skip school in favor of a shoplifting spree. (Amazingly, security cameras in a number of stores recorded the progress of both parties.) Jon and Bobby lured James away from his mother while she was in a butcher's shop. She noticed he was missing almost immediately and notified security. But by then the three boys were on a two-and-a-half-mile trek during which they were witnessed by dozens of people who assumed James was simply a fussy little brother. A few adults did confront them, noting the lumps and scratches on James's tear-streaked face, but paid no further attention. When his body was found on the railroad tracks near Walton Lane, his head had been bludgeoned and his torso severed by the trains. Blue paint and blood spattered everywhere matched the stains on Jon and Bobby's clothing. Smith includes the awful investigative interviews with the boys, recounting their versions of what they did, and details their trial on charges of abduction and murder. Found guilty, they will serve 15 years before being eligible for release. His amateur pop-psychological analyses of the killers' family lives aside, Smith, a solid writer and an excellent reporter (he writes for Esquire), makes this horrendous story almost readable. (Photos, not seen)