The Crimes That Shocked Britain

by Laura Fulton

This authoritative book explores a number of the more infamous crimes that have captured the British public's imagination. The chilling murders of Jack the Ripper; the mysterious cases of the Torso on the Train and the Brides in the Bath and thegrimly fascinating crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper are explored in fascinating detail.

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to some of the crimes that have happened in the UK.

I love true crime and so I love reading books like this but unfortunately there wasn't really anything new I learnt about the crimes in this book. They are nearly all well known crimes especially towards the end of the book and the information given was simple at best and dint really go into any depth, I'm not suggesting it should be a text book, but at least a bit more than just the bog standard information would have been nice.

One thing that didn't sit right with me was that at times it felt like rather than explaining why the perpetrators did what they did and so forth, the author was almost trying to make excuses for them and the crimes they did, I especially felt this in the chapter about Thompson and Venables chapter and their horrific murder of little James Bulger. I understand that they had bad starts to life, but saying that they didnt know that what they did was wrong was a bit too far for me.

If you are looking a simple introduction to true crime or in particular British true crime then this would be a good place to start.

[Ali Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a good, concise overview of many infamous crimes that took place in Britain. Starting with Jack the Ripper in 1888 and detailing cases right up until 2012.

I learned additional facts about crimes I have heard about many times and gained a deeper understanding of the investigations.
However, there were a number of errors/typos which kind of undermined the detailed research. For example, in the chapters about the Soham murders it says "... until Sunday 4 August 1994 when their young lives were shattered." But the crime took place in 2002.

Or in another one it refers to the perpetrator's three year old son but it meant thirteen (I had to go and check online as the maths didn't seem to make sense in the book as the perpetrator split with his partner in 1994 but had a 3 year old with her in 2007...).

Another "fact" was that a specific Yorkshire Ripper's victim was a prostitute but she wasn't one of the prostitute victims. Although I have only learned this from recent books and a dramatisation which led me to more research. Perhaps this wasn't clarified at the time that this book was written.

Overall, an interesting and educational book but with some sloppy mistakes at bits.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative crime book. It gives you all of the facts in concise chapters and I enjoyed reading it

[Amy Drozdowicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full to the hilt with inaccuracies and printing errors but that’s just how I like it

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Dark but I found it very interesting