I read Scotland Yard’s Casebook of Serious Crime by Dick Kirby and I was thoroughly impressed. This book is a collection of some of the most notorious cases in British criminal history, from the Jack the Ripper murders to the Great Train Robbery, and Kirby does an excellent job of bringing them to life. He provides detailed accounts of the investigations, the suspects, and the outcomes of each case. As an American reader, I found the book to be interesting and informative about a justice system that is quite different from the one I know. It was fascinating to learn about the different approaches taken by Scotland Yard to solve crimes over the years.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Enjoyable read.
I read this one in one read sitting easy to dip in and out of.
Would recommend to any true crime enthusiast.

Love and enjoy crime books. Enjoyed this one and was read within a couple of sittings. Any true crime enthusiast needs to read

A highly entertaining, gripping and well researched book. The authors is an expert and know what he's talking about.
I enjoyed this book and it's highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Princess Fuzzypants here: I am not sure which I enjoyed more: the stories of various villains whom the Yard have brought to justice or the no holds barred writing style of the author. It is often said that one should write about things you know. Mr. Kirby knows the Yard and he can tell a story in an entertaining and informative way.

I more than suspect he longs for the return of the days when the gloves were off more in policing but he is also not remiss about bringing the questionable ethics of some coppers into the light. All in all, he shares with the reader the exploits of some colourful characters to whom he has given just due. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Five purrs and two paws up.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword for a copy of “ Scotland Yard’s Casebook Of Serious Crime “ for an honest review.

For me a book published by Pen and Sword is always a good indication of a quality book .
I found this book by Dick Kirby , a new author to me, to be well written and informative. It was interesting to see how policing has changed over the years..
Recommended to anyone who enjoys the crime genre

A well written and researched book about bygone policing methods and crimes
A great insight in to the crimes of the past, the detection of the criminals and the punishment they received.
Highly recommended for true crime readers.
Thanks to NetGalley and Pen &Sword True Crime.

Fascinating, Intricately Researched…
A fascinating and very readable account of historical policing methods through caselaw, both renowned and lesser known but always of interest. Intricately researched and well compiled.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A well-written, plain-speaking account of true crimes from bygone times. Well researched and wonderfully written. Recommended.

I received this book to review and I am so grateful as this is an excellent book! Well researched and well written, I could not put it down. The written style is easy to follow and I would recommend to people who enjoy reading books about real life crime and the history of the police. This author was new to me, however I will be reading other books by this author on future.

Justice seems to move at a snails pace - but this was not always the case! Take a step back in time through the eyes of a member of Scotland Yard, and see how policing used to be!
For lovers of true crime, this book is PERFECT! I absolutely loved reading about the cases, the sentences meted out, and the no-nonsense take of the author in discussing both crime and criminal.

Did not finish.

A book written by an ex policeman who seems to think that people don't deserve human rights and that the police should be allowed to behave how they want without being checked for abuses of power just so they can secure convictions.

I nearly stopped reading this book when I saw the blurb talk about how PACE (which safeguards civilian rights from police brutality) was political correctness which got in the way of proper crimefighting.

I stopped reading into the first chapter where, having banged on non stop about how not all police officers are/were corrupt, the story is full of how horrendous the police were and how they beat people up so bad, they could barely speak at trial. I stopped reading when he said something like "these people were not indian, the rags on their heads were not turbans, they were bandages". Turbans are not rags, you uneducated "man".

This man is stuck in the past, where he thinks police abuses of power are fine, should be signed off by the courts as long as they can get convictions, no matter how unsafe they are. The fact that he bumlicks the very corrupt Flying Squad shows just what side he falls on.

The police are notorious for dodgy dealings, you only have to look a little in the past to see the riots of Toxteth, Southall, Tottenham and then the riots incited by the Mark Duggan shooting to see how, that even now, under PACE, they are still brutes.

The author of course, turns a blind to all of this. This book left a very bad taste in my mouth and I would rate it 0 stars out of five.

Another good true crime read by Dick Kirby, about the ins and outs of policing over the last 75 years. Well researched and full of cases, I enjoyed this one a lot. Many great stories about this time period regarding the pursuit of criminals. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Dick Kirby, and the publisher.

Huge thanks to them and Netgalley for allowing me to review this one.

Dick Kirby is a former experienced Met detective and it's really interesting to hear his take on these cases. Several years ago I read another of his works, Whitechapel's Sherlock Holmes: The Casebook of Fred Wensley and really enjoyed that one. In this book Mr. Kirby has chosen a number of cases, some well known others less so and walks us through the various methods used by the police in order to track down the criminals. He is a very engaging narrator and I really enjoyed this book, it is a very engrossing read and fairly easy to read. I would really recommend this book, and will definitely look into more by him. It is perfect for fans of true crime.

Scotland Yard's Casebook of Serious Crime is another book by prolific and very entertaining True Crime author Dick Kirby. Mr Kirby is a former long-serving policeman from "the old days" when criminals lived in fear of the law and and its officers were not required to consider the "human rights" of those with no regard for those of others. That is the theme of this particular book when far from there "never being a policeman around when you want one" officers of the law were in earlier times were "out there" actively looking for potential law-breakers. Coincidentally before reading this book i was talking to my Dad about his days as a young lad in post-war London where the local beat constable was liable to appear "anywhere at any time" and was happy to oblige anyone who thought they take him on in a fight. That's Dick Kirby's style of policing and in his usual ( I'm a big fan and have read most of his books) acerbic and blunt manner he again highlights his disgust with the state of today's criminal justice system.

Like most of Dick Kirby's books this is basically a collection of anecdotes featuring the mad,bad,dangerous to know and merely hapless exploits of the criminal classes and those tasked with bringing them to justice. As ever it's a great read and an insight into a kind of policing that has been replaced with one that has made life a lot easier for criminals and is a career where it's not actually essential to have done any actual police work to progress rapidly.

Human nature is the same wherever one goes, always has been and always will be. However, as the author illustrates through true crime stories in this book, political correctness and other factors have changed how crime is viewed and responded to. He is a former police detective and therefore draws on a wealth of personal experience. His humour and wit do not detract from the gravity of the stories. Some stories are quite laughable, too.

Criminals and heroes in this book are those lesser known, such as Mark Stone, a police officer who went far, FAR above and beyond his duty by rescuing people, including one person he saved from drowning who he took home to nurse back to health. His courage in another rescue unfortunately earned him brain damage. In another incident a female citizen with a broken rib tackled a robber and onlookers did nothing to help. Another which stands out is about the detectives with unbelievable names!

And then there are criminals who thanked magistrates/police for help, such as the one who rescued a man from certain death from a 45' fall. I read about the Thin Man's escape and the piece of skin fingerprint. There is a story about a man with loads of aliases. Commonly, many arrest attempts were made on the running boards of get-away vehicles. So many stories to read, yet the book is not cumbersome or long.

Comparing and contrasting policing in the 20th century with the present time and political climate is interesting and revealing. I recommend this book for Nonfiction crime readers, as well as those interested in human nature and the progression and regression of society over the past century. Be sure to read the glossary at the back, too, for definitions on birching, lagging, punishment diets and so on. The photographs are a great addition...I love when they are included for visual people like me.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this intuitive and arresting book.

Although an interesting subject, I found this book difficult to really sit and enjoy. I could only read a little at a time and then have to put it down.

This book was informative and really fascinating to read.
A great read if you like true information.
5********