Murder by the Sea – book of the TV series

Murder by the Sea is a companion book to the long-running true-crime documentary series on CBS Reality. Since 2018 the programme has examined some of the most extraordinary murder cases in Britain’s seaside towns. From Blackpool to Bournemouth, Southport to Pembrokeshire, people love to be beside the seaside, but away from the piers, the arcades and beautiful beaches lurk some dark secrets.

Ten of the series’ most powerful and shocking cases feature in Murder by the Sea Vol 1. From serial killers to a 1950s poisoner, from cruel husbands to a rare murder by a mother and son, these are the true stories of wives, couples and families who had the misfortune to encounter a killer in their everyday lives.

With complete access to the interviews conducted by the TV production teams with detectives, forensic psychologists, witnesses and relatives, Murder by the Sea Vol 1 features additional material and insights that could not be included in the original episodes.

10 UK murder cases

Stephen Akinmurele – Blackpool serial killer who preyed on retired women

John Cooper – serial killer and rapist who terrorised Pembrokeshire and eluded police for two decades

Paul Longworth – Southport boat club commodore who tried to disguise the murder of his wife as a suicide

Pierre Legris – Bournemouth bigamist who bludgeoned to death a woman who thought she was his second wife

Malcolm Green – notorious Cardiff murderer who killed a prostitute and his best friend

Louisa May Merrifield – the Blackpool Poisoner hanged in 1953 for killing her employer

Mitchell Quy – murdered and dismembered his wife in Southport and taunted police for falling to locate the ‘missing person’

Robert Mochrie – former civil servant who murdered his whole family in Barry

Mathew Hardman – the teen who disembowelled an elderly woman on the island of Anglesey because he wanted to be a vampire

Penny John and Barry Rogers – mother and son who murdered Penny’s mother in Pembrokeshire

Chapters include testimony from police, forensic psychologists and witnesses, who reveal how the killers were caught, and pay tribute to the victims and their families.

Authors

Robin Jarossi

David Howard