The London Blitz Murders

The London Blitz Murders
Author: Max Allan Collins
Publisher: Disaster
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781612185200

By day, she's Mrs. Mallowan, hospital pharmacist. By night, she's Agatha Christie, queen of crime. Doing her part for the war effort, Agatha dispenses medicine in shell- shocked London. But the world's most renowned mystery writer is troubled. Compared to the horrors of World War II, her detective novels seem trivial and quaint. When a Jack the Ripper-style murderer strikes, Agatha lobbies her friend, forensics expert Sir Bernard Spilsbury, to take her to the crime scenes. But the killings are far more gruesome than any that her fictional detectives have ever solved. Can a crime writer also be a crime fighter? Joining forces with London's top investigators, Agatha risks her life to stop the monstrous serial killer. With this ripped-from-the-headlines mystery, author Max Allan Collins presents a blood-stained valentine to the most celebrated author of detective fiction.

Murder on the Home Front

Murder on the Home Front
Author: Molly Lefebure
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1405526092

The remarkable true story, as seen in the brilliant TV adaptation now showing on Netflix! Murder on the Home Front follows Molly Lefebure as she navigates working for the Home Office's chief forensic pathologist while living in a bomb-stricken London during the second world war. One ordinary day in 1941, forensic pathologist Dr Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the 'horrors of secretarial work' don't appeal to Molly Lefebure, she's intrigued to find out exactly what goes on behind a mortuary door. Capable and curious, 'Miss Molly' quickly becomes indispensible to Dr Simpson as he meticulously pursues the truth. Accompanying him from sombre morgues to London's most gruesome crime scenes, Molly observes and assists the investigations into murders which, despite the war around them, are still being perpetrated.

Full Dark House

Full Dark House
Author: Christopher Fowler
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2004-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553900412

Edgy, suspenseful, and darkly comic, here is the first novel in a riveting mystery series starring two cranky but brilliant old detectives whose lifelong friendship was forged solving crimes for the London Police Department's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case—and how along the way the unlikely pair of crime fighters changed the face of detection. A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For his partner John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half-a-century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned . . . with a killing vengeance. It begins when a dancer in a risque new production of Orpheus in Hell is found without her feet. Suddenly, the young detectives are plunged in a bizarre gothic mystery that will push them to their limits—and beyond. For in a city shaken by war, a faceless killer is stalking London's theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it will take Arthur Bryant’s unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seems almost supernatural—a murderer who even decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them . . . and is ready to claim the other. Filled with startling twists, unforgettable characters, and a mystery that will keep you guessing, Full Dark House is a witty, heartbreaking, and all-too-human thriller about the hunt for an inhuman killer.

Crime in the Second World War

Crime in the Second World War
Author: Penny Legg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781781220092

Was There Crime in the Second World War? At a time of national emergency, the average person could be forgiven for thinking that crime rates would go down as everyone tried to help the war effort. However, the reality was that criminals saw the war as an opportunity to exploit the emergency conditions and those with a previously unblemished reputation found themselves tempted off the straight and narrow. Criminal activity wasn't just a civilian occupation. The military services had its share of crime and the influx of foreign troops added to the problem. American and Canadian troops found themselves transported to Britain in preparation for D-Day. Lonely and far from home, some rioted and many looked for other distractions with desertion being a significant problem and one which was often funded by crime. Heavily illustrated with both contemporary and modern photographs Penny takes you back to some of the most infamous wartime crimes such as the blackout ripper, the bath chair murderer and the last person to be prosecuted in Britain for witchcraft. She also delves into the murky world of Spivs, Gangs, prostitutes and Robbers. At a time when rationing, shortages and the blitz meant feeding the family became ever more difficult it was all too easy for the increasingly blurred line of criminality to be crossed. Penny Legg shows how and why crime was committed during the Second World War and what became of those Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse who strayed into the underworld.

The Stratford Murder

The Stratford Murder
Author: Mike Hollow
Publisher: Allison & Busby Ltd
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0749026081

First published as Firing Line. October, 1940. Bombs are falling on Stratford when air-raid warden Sylvia Parks sees a house with a shining light, in clear breach of the city's strict blackout rules. With no answer at the door she manages to break in, only to discover the body of a young woman, strangled to death with a stocking. For Detective Inspector John Jago, the scene brings back memories of the gruesome Soho Strangler, who murdered four women a few years ago but has never been caught - could there be a connection?

The Canning Town Murder

The Canning Town Murder
Author: Mike Hollow
Publisher: Allison & Busby Ltd
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2020-07-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0749026871

First Published as Fifth Column.September, 1940. As the Blitz takes its nightly toll on London and Hitler prepares his invasion fleet just across the Channel in occupied France, Britain is full of talk about enemy agents. Suspicion is at an all time high and no one is sure who can be trusted.In Canning Town, rescue workers are unsettled when they return to a damaged street and discover a body that shouldn't be there. When closer examination of the corpse reveals death by strangling, Detective Inspector John Jago is called upon to investigate. But few seem to really care about the woman's death - not even her family. As Jago digs deeper he starts to uncover a trail of deception, betrayal, and romantic entanglements.

The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps

The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps
Author: Laurence Ward
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-03-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0500518254

The complete World War II bomb census maps—unique graphic representations of one of the pivotal events of the century The aerial bombardment of London during the Second World War is one of the most significant events in the city’s modern history. Between 1939 and 1945, London and its environs experienced destruction on a huge and deadly scale, with air raids and rocket attacks reducing entire buildings and streets to rubble. The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps—meticulously hand-colored to document the extent of the damage being wrought on the city and surrounding areas—represent a key record of the destruction wrought by the Blitz, the impact of which can still be seen in the capital’s urban and social landscapes. Featuring new, high-quality reproductions of the 110 maps, this publication marks the first occasion on which these truly remarkable documents have been made available to a general audience. An introduction by Laurence Ward, Principal Archivist at the London Metropolitan Archives, explores the maps in the context of the terrible events that made them necessary. Reproductions of the maps themselves are complemented by a series of photographs of the damage done to the City of London, taken with a sympathetic yet unflinching eye by police constables Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs; additional archival photographs; and tables of statistics. This landmark publication represents an invaluable graphic representation of one of the most dramatic and affecting episodes in the history of London.

A Bespoke Murder

A Bespoke Murder
Author: Edward Marston
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2011-09-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0749040009

May 1915. As zeppelin bombs fall on London and with the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German hysteria reaches fever pitch and attacks on German immigrants surge. Not even the West End of London is immune. Jacob Stein's bespoke tailoring business comes under brutal attack, leaving his safe ransacked, his daughter, Ruth, raped and Jacob dead. Inspector Harvey Marmion is detailed to the case and faces an uphill struggle to track down the perpetrators, even up to the chaos of the Front Line. But was the murder as opportunistic as it first appears, or did someone with a deadly grudge plan the attack?

The Pearl Harbor Murders

The Pearl Harbor Murders
Author: Max Allan Collins
Publisher: Disaster
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781612185194

Edgar Rice Burroughs created the wildly popular Tarzan of the Apes and John Carter of Mars, but the exploits of his heroes cannot rival the writer's own explosive adventure, sparked by the tragic murder of an exotic young beauty on a moon-swept Honolulu beach. The killing is written off as the tragic result of a lovers' quarrel, but Burroughs suspects that the alluring half-Japanese singer was executed by espionage agents. It's December 6, 1941. War with Japan is looming, and Burroughs has reason to suspect an attack on Oahu is imminent. Was the songstress silenced to prevent her from "singing" about certain sinister plans? As Burroughs and his son Hully search for clues and track down suspects, all signs point to the next day--Sunday--as the perfect time for a Japanese invasion. But the thought of such devastation raining down on paradise seems almost unbelievable.... Set against the catastrophic aerial strike that led the United States into another world war, The Pearl Harbor Murders effortlessly mixes hard- hitting action and exotic romance in this gripping untold chapter from our nation's most tragic day.

The Battle of London 1939-45

The Battle of London 1939-45
Author: Jerry White
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1448191807

'Endlessly fascinating. . . White is such a brilliant historian' Mail on Sunday Lasting for six long years, the Blitz transformed life in the capital beyond recognition, marking a time of almost constant anxiety, disruption, deprivation and sacrifice for Londoners. With the capital the nation's frontline during the Second World War, by its end, 30,000 inhabitants had lost their lives. While much has been written about 'the Myth of the Blitz', its riveting social history has often been overlooked. Unearthing what it was actually like for those living through those tempestuous years, Jerry White paints a fascinating portrait of the daily lives of ordinary Londoners, telling the story through their own voices. 'As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable' Sunday Telegraph 'An impressive history of the capital at war. . . White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources' Literary Review