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Strange Tales from Strangeways
1st Pan edition paperback, fine, true crime In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
- GenresTrue CrimeNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 26, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 30, 2016
A collection of murder cases from around Manchester each of which ends in the accused being executed at Strangeways Prison. Most of these stories are not as strange as the title of this book suggests, although they were still interesting and where not cases that I had heard of before.
The ‘stories’ are well enough written but are rather short and it kind of reads like a series of Wikipedia articles. At the end of some of them the author writes a paragraph where she suggests that the accused could have been innocent and should not have been hanged however she did not really explore this during the telling of the story. Maybe this book would have been better with longer accounts of what happened (some of the stories are 4 pages long) and the arguments for and against the accused should have been presented more clearly if you are going to ask the reader if they were guilty. Especially as a lot of these crimes are particularly shocking, evil and unmotivated, and almost read as an argument for the death penalty.
My favourite was the last story more specifically part two, which the author did not write, it is a first-hand account written by Charles Parton, who was sentenced to death for murder and served 11 years before being found not guilty. Well he was released under very strict rules and was still not granted innocence (even though the victim had been found to have died of natural causes) , if the author intended to question whether justice was fair and right especially on the death penalty, then this final story is by far the best in the book.
The ‘stories’ are well enough written but are rather short and it kind of reads like a series of Wikipedia articles. At the end of some of them the author writes a paragraph where she suggests that the accused could have been innocent and should not have been hanged however she did not really explore this during the telling of the story. Maybe this book would have been better with longer accounts of what happened (some of the stories are 4 pages long) and the arguments for and against the accused should have been presented more clearly if you are going to ask the reader if they were guilty. Especially as a lot of these crimes are particularly shocking, evil and unmotivated, and almost read as an argument for the death penalty.
My favourite was the last story more specifically part two, which the author did not write, it is a first-hand account written by Charles Parton, who was sentenced to death for murder and served 11 years before being found not guilty. Well he was released under very strict rules and was still not granted innocence (even though the victim had been found to have died of natural causes) , if the author intended to question whether justice was fair and right especially on the death penalty, then this final story is by far the best in the book.
August 2, 2014
Really liked this one.
If there's one criticism it's the title, "Strange tales...." - some of the cases are just straight forward murder cases (not that it makes the book any less interesting).
There's a case in the town where I live at present, in fact it happened a couple of streets away so that is rather interesting in itself, although the case is rather sad.
Bought this book at a book fair and the seller pointed out a rather chilling bit of writing at the top of one of the chapters (James Smith / Isabella Cross case - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sm...)
where it says "I knew this killer. I played my part in his last day of life. He was evil.)
Very spooky in itself!
Overall, I enjoyed it, took me less than a week to read it.
If there's one criticism it's the title, "Strange tales...." - some of the cases are just straight forward murder cases (not that it makes the book any less interesting).
There's a case in the town where I live at present, in fact it happened a couple of streets away so that is rather interesting in itself, although the case is rather sad.
Bought this book at a book fair and the seller pointed out a rather chilling bit of writing at the top of one of the chapters (James Smith / Isabella Cross case - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sm...)
where it says "I knew this killer. I played my part in his last day of life. He was evil.)
Very spooky in itself!
Overall, I enjoyed it, took me less than a week to read it.
October 16, 2008
Not was I thought it might be - well enough written, but a bit repetative and dull at time. I suppose this is better than making things up to enhance the content!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews