Murder Guide To London

by Fido

Book by Fido

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, British Literature

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Nina Townson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Martin Fido's Murder Guide to London is an interesting concept but unfortunatly it doesn't work in practice.

This book is designed to enable the reader to visit all the surviving murder sites in London armed with a copy and a macabre mind. The key word here is 'surviving', as many of the sites listed in the book are now obsolete or have changed beyond recognition.

In all fairness the book was published originally in 1986 (my copy was published in 1988) and thus is over 30 years old now. It is understandable that the topography of certain districts have changed.

The murder cases included in the book occurred largely between the 1800's to the 1980's and were selected according to a loose criterion. Cases which were unknown or commonplace were disregarded, as the author notes, a comprehensive guide of every murder that has occurred in London would be a huge undertaking.

The author therefore chose to focus on cases which had something 'extra'. Fido writes that the Victorian murderer gained particular attention if any of the following criteria were satisfied:

* There was excessive violence or mutilation of the victim
* The victim was famous or noteworthy
* The murderer was a middle or upper class individual
* There was a significant manhunt for the culprit

A further point was later added following the Whitechapel murders of the 1880's

* Multiple murder or sexual explicitness

These points also have a cumulative effect, the more points satisfied the more 'notorious' the murderer was likely to become. The author notes that Jack the Ripper is the closest to a 5* murderer, only his anonymity stops us ticking the 'middle class' box, though there has been much speculation about the identity of the Ripper in that regard, with many keen to assign blame to an upper class or royal personage.

The book covers a lot of separate cases and out of necessity we receive only a brief description of the events that occurred, even figures as compellingly interesting or notorious as Ruth Ellis and Dennis Nilson only receive the standard couple of paragraphs entry space.

There is an index at the back of the book which contains some helpful maps to illustrate the separate murder sites within a particular district, though these would have been more useful if they were provided at the commencement of each chapter, offering a visual aid to the description. For those unfamiliar with London, like myself, it is easy to get 'lost' and therefore the maps were a welcome accompaniment.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept that I think would have worked better if the various maps had been put with the relevant chapters rather than at the back of the book. Some interesting little facts that I haven't read anywhere else and I liked the mention of the old street names together with the new and what now takes the place of the buildings in the modern London. "A year later, in 1807, an unsolved murder rook place where Webber Street (then called Higgler's Lane) meets Great Suffolk Street (then called Dirty Lane - by all accounts aptly).

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book, though slightly out of date. It could be used as a guide book for a trip even though alot of the places mentioned were already gone at the time of printing. As a book to read to learn a little about the more famous murders in London it was great.