I thought both questions were fairly straightforward. The creative writing was similar to last year's (I was terrified it'd be another crazy one like 'write an interview with a character from one of your set texts' or something), and the essay really let you come to your own conclusions. I used the "perfect crime" thing, and the connotation that the criminal wanted a battle of wits, to get into stuff like morality and intellect.
Like, for example in Golden Age, you've always got the detective who's more intelligent than the criminal, because that kind of rationalist world view sees crime as a deviation from what's good for humanity, and therefore reckons criminals are stupid and can't possibly beat rational thinkers like Sherlock or Hercule.
Translate that over to
The Skull Beneath The Skin, and while Ambrose is clever, the reason he gets away is that Cordelia is flawed, human and "imperfect", and that society's morals are based in materialism, so a rich dude is untouchable. It's not "the perfect crime" per se, but more so the imperfect system.
Might I add,
Se7en was the perfect related material. Hehehe.