NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

I haven’t read too many true crime books as of late, although I do listen to a ton of podcasts on it. And I mean a ton, its probably a red flag on Spotify, and I am likely on some list somewhere. Some of my favorite ones are historical accounts vs modern ones simply because the cases seem to always take wild turns that you aren’t expecting. You hear about these insane investigations and primitive forensics efforts that likely led to tons of false imprisonments, but its exciting none-the-less. This book chronicles 51 such historical cases in the UK between 1914-1918 – The era of World War I. Taking a small, specific era in history is interesting as one really gets into the time period when its all laid out like this.

Webb splits each case into its own small chapters which are then split into sub-headings such as cases all committed by straight razor, or all axe-murders etc. I liked this configuration a lot; it made this easy for me to read bit-by-bit before I went to bed this past week. This is an entertaining read insomuch as a book on murders can be simply because of the way it is written. That isn’t to say Simon Webb makes light of the cases, as they are all very tragic, but he keeps you wanting to read more and more, and the information is well-researched. This book also acts, in a way, as a chronicle as to why Britain eventually did away with Capital Punishment – many of these cases have terrible things happen during the execution, it you can tell it scarred the main executioner quite a bit.

Another Solid historical offering from Pen and Sword, I’ll have to see if they have anymore books by this author, as a continuation of this series (if it becomes one) into later or previous years would be interesting. If you want a quick read to keep your true crime interest satiated, I’d recommend this book. It’s definitely to die for.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I usually find these collections of stories to be fascinating. Being able to dip in and out and read as many or as few chapters as desired appeals to me. The funny thing is they usually grab me and I end up reading as many pages in a sitting as I do in a fiction. I cannot put it down. For some reasons, I found this one a slog.

The facts and figures were there. The stories should have been riveting but there did not seem to be the passion for the subject that often sets these books apart. It was not bad. It just was not good. It pains me to say it as I normally enjoy this author. Three purrs and one paw up.

First World War Trials and Executions by Simon Webb is a book about crimes taking place during World War I (1914-1918) and the executions of the criminals that took place. The book is broken up into 10 chapters, each one about different murders or espionage that was taking place in England at the time. They aren't mini-biographies, but mini-stories that show how trials and executions took place during the First World War.

There are ten chapters, with each chapter covering a different type of crime: murders with a razor, an axe, a poker, a gun, beatings, knives, child murder, and spying. Each chapter gives great details without being overly gruesome, at least not to me. However, as I mentioned, there is child murder, as well as spousal abuse and uxoricide, the murder of a wife or girlfriend. The book does talking about botched hangings, which is as unpleasant as it sounds. There are all three appendices that go into more detail about the hangmen, how they did the actual hanging, and a list of the executions.

Overall, I found the book to be very interesting. I don't know much about the World War I time period, so it was nice to learn something new, even if it was the unfortunate murders of so many people. Everything is laid out neatly and explained very well, without being provocative. Simon Webb takes great care to make these people real and not just facts on a page.

The section I thought was the most interesting was chapter three, which was about the spies in England during the time. It was darkly funny in a way because the spies the Germans chose were very bad and the Germans themselves were so inept at spying, keeping the same address and having the same contacts for almost all the executed spies in this section.

I would recommend this book if you like true crime, World War I, or just want to learn more about the era.

This book is not so much bad as pointless. It is difficult to see what the author was hoping to achieve with it and, at least to me, he achieved absolutely nothing at all (aside from a pointless book, of course).

From the start, the title is misleading. On reading a title of 'First World War Trials and Executions', I would at least expect those trials and executions in the book to have some connection with the Great War. The only connection that most of them had was that they occupied the same period in history as did said conflict. Why such a narrow time period, if the fact of the concurrent conflict had no bearing on the actual cases selected for study? In fact, it appears the only thing that concentrating on this time period brought to the table was a paucity of interesting murders to include, since the majority of the cases presented were particularly uninteresting, and those actually connected with the war (wartime spy executions) were the least compelling.

The book begins with an introduction that could be considered a text-book example of an author who does not believe in 'show-don't-tell'. The author spends the whole section telling his readers how disturbing executions are, and how sure he is that his readers would find them so. Quite possibly, but why not allow us to come to such a conclusion for ourselves by actually showing us how disturbing they are in the case studies, rather than telling us that right from the get-go, as it were. As he launches into the terminally uninteresting case studies, for some reason the author adopts an insufferably lecturing, 'know-all' tone, which also had more than a hint of levity within, which was wholly inappropriate for a book of this type. Real-life murder is not a subject for levity, especially judicial murder.

The substance of the case studies presented - especially in the earlier sections, is clearly more the author's supposition that actual fact, and he evinces a marked tendency to sensationalise such plain facts as there are. He uses such phrases as "it surprised nobody" when a certain person was sentenced to death. In fact, it might have surprised everyone but we don't know because we weren't there, and neither was he! Again, we get him telling us how shocking these crimes are, rather than just showing us in his descriptions of the cases. At another time we get him telling us about "what seemed an interminable time" for one of the criminals. He just cannot seem to help injecting thoughts and feelings into the minds of these criminals. All well and good if he were writing fiction, but this is supposed to be a work of non-fiction, so in this case, a cardinal sin.

The book reads something like a schoolboy's answer to an exam question phrased something like 'give your opinion regarding...' All we get, after being told how shocking we ought to think a singularly uninteresting case study is, is how shocking the Author thinks it is. He is constantly inserting his own opinion, and he is far from impartial. Again, no question of letting the reader decide for himself what he thinks of the case. In one of the case studies the author himself seems to have lost the plot. He starts off relating a story about Sarah Wood, then a paragraph or two later we begin to hear about Sarah Metcalf who is clearly the same person, with nary an explanation of the change of name!

Not only were the crimes covered by the individual case studies dull in themselves, the anecdotal passages detailing the back-story of the executioners also lacked interest, as did the tedious detailing of the last days of the condemned men (all but one were men), and their various journeys from condemned cell to the scaffold, then through the trapdoor. A very harrowing experience I am sure, but one that was robbed of whatever pathos it might have had by the flaccid pen of this author.

I've read many a book of this type, and this is possibly the worst, both in content and style. The only reason I didn't consign it to the DNF pile is because I knew I had to review it and I didn't, in all conscience, think I could review a book I hadn't finished reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen and Sword for the arc of First World War Trials and Executions by Simon Webb.

5 stars- This book follows all the criminals of the first world war including traitors spys and even killers! You even get to know how many of them people were excutued and the fact it was actually 51 men executed in England. Most of those executed ended up being hanged, 80 percent of these were for murder and some for espionage but they was shot, and only one traitor and one spy was hanged during this time period. Some chapters were even used for the executioners so you find out more about them and why they ended up stopping there job etc it was really interesting.

Thank you to Pen and Sword for granting my wish for this.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to Simon Webb, NetGalley, and Pen & Sword History for this advanced copy.

This book goes in depth into the murders and subsequent executions during the years of 1914-1918. It is suitably grisly. Webb discusses diverse techniques of murder, from razors, axes, pokers, to beatings, as well as looking into non-fatal crimes, such as espionage.

The other main subject in the book, though, are the executions themselves. Webb treats the issue with great care - we are taken to the gallows to witness the deaths with the executioners (particularly John Ellis). It is an interesting aspect of crime that is often overlooked, particularly since Britain abolished the death penalty decades ago.

This is a fascinating book. Webb has clearly researched the subject fastidiously, and his style of writing is very accessible. I sometimes find non-fiction can be quite dry, but this book is nothing of the sort. I read it in only a couple of sittings.

Clearly, if you are squeamish, this book is not for you. There are some very graphic descriptions of real deaths in here. However, I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the darker side of history.

Enjoyed reading Simon Webb's fascinating history of an area of World War I that does not get much attention. While there are tons of books about the war published every year, this is one to read. I will recommend that my library purchase a copy.

Thanks to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing an early copy for me to review.

3 Stars
This book is full of factual information & makes for a very interesting read.
I have not read anything on execution before and this was very enlightening.
I learnt a lot from reading this book regarding history and I wasn't even aware that people were executed in Britain until 1960s!
I love a true crime read and this was great, but unfortunately just missed the mark for me.
Lots of information regarding different individuals & their crimes, but I feel that the booked lacked order.
Personally, I think that it may have been improved, and easier to follow, if the events were told in chronological order.
There is a brief part towards the end of the book which talks about the executioners themselves which I really enjoyed reading, but I think that this could have delved deeper and also perhaps have been told alongside the timeline of executions.
A good book with lots of interesting & factual information.
An easy read.

I really enjoyed this book!

I have a passion for true crime books and after reading the blurb for this book I knew that it would tick the boxes for me. I was really keen to get started on the book and had it read from cover to cover within a few hours of it landing on my Kindle.

I liked the layout for the book and it was interesting to see the trends in the murders and crimes that had been committed. I was really surprised when reading it to see that there was only the one murder I was aware in detail previously in the book too so it was great to pick up a book of this nature, that covers a period I enjoy that actually had new things for me to read.

I knew a little about those that had been executed at the Tower of London from books I have previously read but this one contained a lot more detail and was really interesting to me. I knew about one of the bullets being a blank so none of them firing would know who had actually had a fatal shot when a firing squad was used, but wasn’t aware that it feels different when a blank bullet is fired so they actually would have known all along!

It is 5 stars from me for this one, I loved the step back in time and the variety and details of the crimes committed – very highly recommended!

If you like anthology stories and books where things are laid out in a nice straight line, you will like this book. It was more of a collection of stories than I expected it to be when I started it.
The chapters were laid out nicely and there were patterns and similarities between the stories that you would not necessarily expect.
More than anything, I think that this book is a good jumping off point for anyone who is interested in the topics of this book. It does not go into great depth about any one thing but it reads like you're listening to your grandpa tell stories; going from one to another as he remembers them.

Where does one even begin with such a fascinating topic? Simon Webb has written about completely different perspectives than typical history books. He has researched the last moments of many who were executed, nearly all men, in England between 1914 and 1918; some were stoic, some terrified out of their minds and some resolute. Not only that but he describes the crimes, trials and manners of execution in vivid detail.

Considering the era, murder methods during the time were different in ways than they are now. Murder is often committed with implements at hand and then the most oft used was the "cut razor". The term is no accident. Other methods described include fireplace pokers and drowning. At times the conviction was obvious but that was not always the case. So many stories stand out in my mind but two in particular include a man who literally tried to run to his execution to get it over with and another of a man known by the executioner. Also described is where the prisoner spent his last night and why.

What intrigued me most were the last moments of those executed, how they interacted with guards, what they ate for breakfast and their walk to the scaffold or the shooting "gallery". Prior to read this book I hadn't thought about the executioner mentally (and sometimes physically) measuring the person's height, weight and neck in order to calculate the "drop" for a clean death. Two executioners were discussed in particular, especially a man called John Ellis who often visited his "clients" incognito to alleviate the stress of measuring in person. The author also describes the 30+ meter walk to death which must have felt like forever and the procedures involved in hanging and shooting (for those in the military). We are also told the salary for executioners then and the heavy weight an executioner carried. It all sounds positively morbid but it is riveting information.

The grisly descriptions are not for everyone but it is a highly interesting topic to those who wonder about the mechanics and processes of the death penalty.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this difficult but enthralling read in exchange for an honest review. I always enjoy learning about history, difficult or not!