MURDER: THE BIOGRAPHY
A gruesome but engaging history of murder
“Morgan doesn’t shirk from telling what is sometimes an ugly, unvarnished truth”
This is perhaps the most comprehensive history of murder that readers will have ever seen. In fact, it’s hard to imagine how this remarkable book could be bettered in the future. Never salacious and far from sensationalist, Murder:
The Biography is instead a gripping journey through the legal history of murder. The book is filled with chilling tales such as the starving crewmates who murdered and ate their ship’s cabin boy under the now-outlawed defence of necessity to murder; the still-controversial case of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England; and the recent tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire. Kate Morgan takes readers back through the centuries to discover exactly how and why the murder laws in the United Kingdom have reached their current status.
As a lawyer, Morgan is no doubt well-versed in the art of making a compelling argument or presenting an engaging case, and she has crafted an absolutely fascinating history in Murder: The Biography. What might have become a rather drab legal history is anything but, and by employing a vast canvas that takes in everything from corporate manslaughter to medical malpractice, self-defence and beyond, she crafts an all-encompassing and immensely readable work. Despite Morgan’s legal expertise, this never becomes a legal textbook and instead she proves herself skilled at taking the most complex matters and turning them into a page-turning narrative.
Of course, it’s inevitable that any book whose focus is on the crime of murder must contain a number of case studies to illustrate its narrative. Those readers of a squeamish nature may occasionally wince, but Murder:
The Biography is a world away from the voyeuristic prurience that some works on true crime stray towards. There is no hint of tabloid sensationalism at all and Morgan describes the crimes analytically where necessary, but also with a great deal of compassion. Morgan also provides a lot of historical and societal context, which is invaluable when it comes to the sometimes shocking stories found here. She makes sense of the many definitions of murder, as well as manslaughter and other associated charges too.
Morgan’s book is not concerned with telling true crime stories so much as demonstrating how they have shaped and influenced the changes in the murder laws over centuries. It is clearly meticulously researched and written by an expert in the field, but Morgan succeeds in taking what could be complex or dry material and presenting it in a way that is anything but.
This is an excellent book that deserves to find a large readership, and it will no doubt appeal to a wide audience. Whether readers are interested in legal history or true crime, or are simply looking for a compelling history that is both current, exceptionally readable and always enthralling, they will find much to admire here. Murder: The Biography poses some very difficult questions, and doesn’t shirk from telling what is sometimes an ugly, unvarnished truth.