Unsolved London Murders: The 1920s & 1930s by Jonathan Oates is an interesting and straightforward collection of 20 unsolved cases from the period.

Let me start by clarifying what this book is and what it is not. Broadly speaking, there are three basic types of true crime books. One is far and away what is thought of as popular crime books, these essentially try to recreate the lead up to and the commission of the crime, then tells about the investigation in narrative form also. When these are called popular true crime books the term can, depending on who is saying it, mean it as a positive or a negative. The second is more along the lines of investigative journalism which tends to be somewhat narrative in nature but the narrative is as much about the writer's investigation as about the crime itself. Finally there are the true crime stories that present just what is known, makes a couple of conjectures, but by and large just "sticks to the facts." This type of approach is often the only way to present older crimes that might not have garnered a lot of press coverage or public scandal. This book fits squarely into that third category. So, as an analogy, this is less like twenty short stories and more like twenty case files.

I mainly mention all of that because this book did not fail at being a bunch of narratives, that wasn't even what it was doing. It did, however, succeed quite well as case files with narrative included when there was enough information to create one. Some readers prefer recreations and something that feels more like a novel or, in this case, short stories. This isn't that.

The writing is actually quite good for the material it is offering. I don't think it is dry, it simply isn't embellished, which again is due to the difference in the type of book it is. There is also a tendency as a reader in 2020 to imagine what the next step would be if the crime was committed now, and that can throw off the flow when none of the tests we would expect are run because they don't yet exist, at least not in a forensically usable form.

One of the more interesting aspects of reading about past crimes is noticing how society treated people different, and sometimes not so different, based on gender, socioeconomic class, etc. Along those same lines it is fascinating to think about how some aspects of policing at that time could transfer to our time. More community policing than paramilitary policing, more like a neighbor in uniform rather than someone with an inflated sense of self-worth being armed to the teeth walking through other people's neighborhoods looking for trouble. Public servants versus armed government thugs. But we all have our own ways into these old cases and come away with different thoughts.

As long as you're not looking for re-creations and true crime written as fiction, you will find a lot here to enjoy.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

A short introduction into policing in the 1920s and 1930s is followed by a chapter on crime between the wars. We are next treated to a nice little selection of vignettes of some of the unsolved cases from 1920s and 1930s London. They are not overly long - covering the who (victim), what (the murder), how (was it committed), and though some credible suspects lurk just off page and potential reasons given for the crimes, no-one has yet been brought to justice.

Definitely one for the fans of true crime - easily readable, and very accessible for a broader range of reader. ( )