Bloody Business: An Anecdotal History of Scotland Yard Hardcover – September 1, 1992
by H. P. Jeffers (Author)
 
A history of Scotland Yard presents dozens of cases, discussing the case of Jack the Ripper; Reg Christie, who murdered six women; and the henpecked Dr. Crippen, who murdered his wife.
 
From Publishers Weekly
Readers of British murder mysteries, from Arthur Conan Doyle's to P. D. James's, will devour this history of the world's most famous police agency. Jeffers ( Who Killed Precious? ) does a grand job of mingling facts about the Yard--its founding in 1829, the appointment of the first detectives in 1842 and the formation of the Special Branch in 1883--with the tales of Britain's most famous criminals: Jack the Ripper (the unsolved murders still rankle at the Yard); Dr. Neil Cream, a serial murderer of prostitutes; those behind the Moors Murders, the most horrible sadists in the Yards' records; Reginald Christie, who killed at least six women and set a moron up to be executed for some of them; trunk murderers, drug dealers and IRA terrorists. Lovers of crime writing both true and fictional won't want to miss this. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Readers will derive pleasure from this lively and entertaining history of the world's most famous police force. Although Jeffers focuses on the Yard's major cases--mostly murders--he also details changes in uniforms through the years and provides such trivia as the fact that 14,212 umbrellas languished in the Lost Property Department in 1890. Beginning with an early history showing how the Yard emerged despite natural British suspicion to uniformed police, Jeffers continues to the present day. He includes famous cases like Dr. Crippen and Jack the Ripper along with homey explanations of how the Yard expanded and evolved to include traffic control and bomb squads. Jeffers doesn't flinch from showing warts, such as the 1980s fiasco that allowed a deranged man to slip past palace security and into Queen Elizabeth's bedchamber. The most interesting sections of the book deal with the evolution of forensic science and are backed up with case studies showing how criminals were caught by then state-of-the-art technology. Recommended for all crime collections.
- Lois Walker, formerly with Winthrop Univ. Lib., Rock Hill, S.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
 
3.5