Bloody business: An anecdotal history of Scotland Yard - Hardcover

Jeffers, H. Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0760712174 ISBN 13: 9780760712177

Publisher: Barnes & Noble, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

That in 1748 novelist Henry Fielding, then a London magistrate, formed the Bow Street Runners--the precursor of Scotland Yard--is just one of the enjoyable curiosities that Jeffers (Who Killed Precious?, 1991, etc.) presents in this lively account of England's famed police force. Ninety years after Fielding's innovation, the Runners, who never numbered more than 15, faced a criminal army of 30,000-- reason enough for Home Secretary Robert Peel to order the formation of a Metropolitan Police Force, to be housed at 4 Whitehall Place, allegedly once ``the site of a palace for visiting Scottish royalty'': And so Scotland Yard was born. By highlighting celebrated cases and personalities, Jeffers sets out to show that the popular image of Yarders as ``inept and ineffectual''--an image summed up, he points out, in Sherlock Holmes's foil Inspector Lestrade--does disservice to a highly professional and dedicated police force. For the most part, Jeffers succeeds, though the first case he presents to counter that image--the solution of the murder of a young woman found stuffed into a car trunk at Gatwick Airport in 1991--points up that it's dogged gumshoeing rather than Holmes- like inspiration that most often allows Scotland Yard to get its man--or, occasionally, woman. Dozens of earlier cases then roll by, a few too familiar--Jack the Ripper, Dr. Crippen, the Keeler/Profumo spy/sex scandal--but many not, and with a preponderance of bloody bodies, often chopped up; and with these cases, interesting notes on the evolution of police work, particularly the advent of forensic detection and the need to combat a new class of gun-toting criminals, including terrorists. No milestone in criminological history but, rather, light, knowledgeable, appealingly ghastly fare for true-crime buffs. (Sixteen pages of photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0760712174
• ISBN 13: 9780760712177
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278