Heather is a professional freelance editor and proofreader who specialises in crime and psychological thrillers.
I am extremely partial to the occasional non-fiction book, and I find those that incorporate true crime particularly fascinating; Murder: The Biography did not disappoint. The book tracks how murder, and its definitions, have changed over the centuries.
Morgan skilfully uses cases some of us will be familiar with, to illustrate how and when changes to the law were made. She does an excellent job of explaining how murder isn’t always simply murder and how, on occasion, you didn’t ever have to have killed someone to hang for the crime.
From the opening paragraphs of the introduction I was not only hooked, but I was learning something. Who knew “Mack the Knife” had such sinister origins? The one case I will not forget in a hurry is that of Fanny Adams, a young girl brutally murdered in a field just outside Alton in Hampshire in 1867. Her name gave rise to the phrase “Sweet Fanny Adams,” coined by the Royal Navy, comparing their meagre meat rations to the poor child’s remains.
There were time when I found the prose a little too wordy for my liking, but that is a minor criticism. Overall I found the book incredibly informative and I would encourage anyone with an interest in true crime, or slightly gruesome history, to pick up Murder: The Biography and delve right in.
