The Real Ted Hastings – corruption scandals inspiring Line of Duty

Millions of us were gripped by the BBC’s Line of Duty. As the sixth series came to a somewhat controversial climax with the revelation that detective Ian Buckells was the embedded criminal known as “H”, author Stephen King was tweeting about it, the late Queen was rumoured to be a fan, and social media was crammed with speculation. Brilliant scripts from creator Jed Mercurio and a wonderful cast of top actors made the series a must-watch event. What is less […]

Books 0 1 min read

Murder by the Sea just published

The book, written by myself and David Howard, has just been published. It’s a companion to the CBS Reality television series, recounting 10 notorious cases with fresh material. Here’s the promo video for the book, with details of the blog tour.

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West End Girls by Barbara Tate

Barbara Tate’s memoir West End Girls is a totally absorbing and revelatory memoir about the author’s two-year stint working as a maid for the Queen of Soho – aka 1940s prostitute Mae. It’s a remarkable glimpse at a lost Soho – grubby, still a residential neighbourhood with small businesses, seedy and with an air of criminality. Barbara is a wide-eyed 21-year-old who has escaped a miserable childhood and has ambitions to be an artist, when she is invited by Mae […]

Books 2 1 min read

The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury

A painstakingly researched and totally absorbing account of a once sensational, now forgotten, murder from 1935. Alma Rattenbury and her young lover, George Stoner, 18, faced the hangman in an Old Bailey trial following the murder of her husband, distinguished architect Francis Rattenbury. The case shocked, horrified, electrified the nation and went on to inspire plays and TV dramas. Francis Rattenbury was a rather ratty old husband, pushing 70, his best years behind him. Alma was a flamboyant 43-year-old, a […]

Books 0 1 min read

Top 10 true-crime books

Great research, vivid writing, historical context – the best true crime can give compelling insight into the kind of personalities that commit notorious crimes. In no particular order, here are 10 true-crime books that I particularly admire… Oswald’s Tale by Norman Mailer 1995 Forget the grassy knoll, mafia hitmen, Castro malcontents, CIA plotters – it was Lee Harvey Oswald what done it. Norman Mailer created a convincing portrait of a pathetic nobody who wanted to make a name for himself. […]

Books 0 5 min read

Hatton Garden ITV

ITV’s Hatton Garden drama has been engrossing. The language is ripe and the cast – including Timothy Spall and Kenneth Cranham – is excellent. The Diamond Wheezers who burgled the underground safe-deposit company in London’s jewellery district in 2015 is a fascinating true-crime story. While pulling off this shocking theft, the veteran lags are also gasping, collapsing, falling asleep and taking plenty of toilet breaks. That light-hearted side is excellently done, scripted by Jeff Pope and Terry Winsor. Pope in […]

Books 0 1 min read

An Inconvenient Death

Just finished Miles Goslett’s account of the Dr David Kelly affair and it is a disconcerting read. Dr Kelly was the British scientist and weapons expert who was caught up in the controversy over whether Iraq really had missiles that could threaten Britain with mass destruction in 45 minutes. This claim was used to help justify the West’s attack on the country. Officials in Tony Blair’s government exposed Dr Kelly as a potential source for the news story that ignited […]

Books 0 1 min read

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

I started watching the Netflix true-crime series, but decided to switch to John Grisham’s book to better absorb these events. The author says in the series that you could not write this story as fiction because no one would believe it. It’s a really shocking tale of a vicious miscarriage of justice. It involves a rotten police investigation, lamentable courtroom failures and a prosecutor apparently hellbent on enacting his own prejudices. The town you probably want to avoid in Oklahoma […]

Books 0 1 min read

The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh, former LA cop, has had an interesting writing career, spanning fiction and non-fiction. I’ve read several of his books and just finished this true-crime title from 1973. It recounts events from 1963 when two LAPD officers stopped a pair of small-time but dangerous characters. Greg Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith pulled a gun and took the policemen, Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, hostage. The officers were ordered to drive to an onion field near Bakersfield. Campbell was executed […]

Books 0 1 min read

Please take a look at my Substack – www.personsunkown.net – for in-depth features on true crime and non-fiction books on the subject

Available from Amazon
Watch out for Murder by the Sea volume 1, being published in July 2022
The Hunt for the 60s' Ripper

Available from Amazon

***** Breakaway Reviewers
‘A fascinating piece of work… His writing is fluid and engaging, providing page after page of detail, analysis and understanding on this intriguing case’
Crime Traveller
‘This book is meticulously researched’
***** CrimeSquad
‘… achieves what all great non-fiction crime books set out to do: be impeccably researched, highly readable and show sensitivity towards the victims. Highly recommended

About me

Why do people commit crimes? How are they caught? Or not caught? These are questions I think we are all interested in to some degree. I'm a journalist and author delving into cases old and recent, as well as a contributor to documentaries such as Murder by the Sea, Voice of a Killer, The Real Prime Suspect and Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. I'm currently working on a book about corruption and how the hit BBC drama Line of Duty echoes real-life wrongdoing in the police.