The World's End Murders: The Final Verdict

by Tom Wood, David Johnston

In The World's End Murders, Tom Wood and David Johnston tell the story of two innocent young women, Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, and of the extraordinary commitment of the police enquiry over three decades that eventually led to the discovery of links to their deaths with Angus Sinclair, one of Scotland's most notorious murderers and sex offenders But this is not a gruesome tale of murder. It is a story of heroes - of the families of Helen and Christine who, with quiet dignity, have carried an unimaginable burden down the years, and of the police officers, the support staff and the scientists who persisted in their investigations and never gave up.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Scotland

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Tom Wood graduated from Middle Tennessee State University on a Saturday then started full-time the following Monday at The Tennessean, where he spent the next 36 years as a sports writer and copy editor.

Tom covered area colleges, boxing, the Iroquois Steeplechase, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and other events. He still freelances mainly for the Ledger newspapers in Nashville and Knoxville and Chattanooga (Hamilton County Herald) but has also written for the Saltillo (MS) Daily Journal, Knoxville News Sentinel, Country Family News, the Naples News, and Ft. Myers News-Press, and other publications.

The short story "A Night on the Town" (2020) co-written with Michael J. Tucker is available as an ebook, and also has been turned into a full-length screenplay. Two of Tom's stories have been semifinalists in the Nashville Film Festival, Vendetta Stone (2015) and Death Takes a Holliday (2016). Tom's other short stories have appeared in the anthologies Writers Crushing Covid-19 (2020), Words on Water (2019), Tennesseans West Vol. 1 (2015), Weird Western Yarns Vol. 1, Western Tales! Vol. 3 and Filtered Through Time (2014).

Tom has worked as an extra on the ABC series "Nashville" (2012-2018) as well as "The Identical" movie (2014), a music video, and other multi-media projects.

Reviews

[Sophy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read regarding the attempts to bring justice for numerous murders, rapes and sexual assaults perpetrated by one depraved human being.

Tom Wood's writing is interesting but there are sadly lots of typos and grammatical errors that are really distracting (as opposed to the precision shown in the writing of Ruxton: The First Modern Murder).

Hearing how dedicated the multiple teams were in trying to bring these cases to fruition is heartening and reassuring, despite the negative outcome.

A good read but not one I'd return to so off it goes to the community book exchange.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating true crime story, detailing the emense effort to solve a cold case. My only gripe with this book is the repetitive narrative, and long confused chapters. Much information is repeated over the book, each chapter summises the last which is good, but it's too wordy. The chapter then progresses from it's original theme and throws in another crime. The final few chapters are good so worth persevering with the book.

[Mr Allan Goldie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Worlds End murders from 1977 were always on my mind as it was the year I joined the Police one month after the bodies were discovered in East Lothian. This book is a fascinating account written by Tom Wood who served throughout his career in Lothian and Borders Police and had a vast experience of the investigation. If like me you are interested in those milestone cases that become so well known then this is a book highly recommended. The life of Angus Sinclair is well detailed and the murders he committed were horrific. The lives of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie are detailed with great dignity and respect. The Police Service and Forensic science progressed a great deal over the years and it was that dedication of investigators and new science that eventually brought justice to this case of murder.

[Nicola (Nikki) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read I really enjoyed it