Book Review: Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan

“Whether in fact or fiction, murder can be all things to all people. At a basic level, it is a tale of good versus evil, where the roles of victim and villain are clearly laid out before us. More often than not, there is an element of mystery at its heart, a puzzle to be solved.”

Set to be released on 29th April, Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan is a non-fiction book that follows the stories and the people involved in the history of murder. From a cannibalized cabin boy whose death at the hands of his hungry crewmates led the Victorian courts to outlaw a defence of necessity to murder, an incompetent GP whose violent disregard for his patient changed the law on manslaughter, to the last woman hanged in England in the 1950s who played a crucial role in changes to the law around provocation in murder cases, and a deranged Scottish aristocrat whose fratricidal frenzy paved the way for the defence of diminished responsibility. These, and many more, are the people – victims, killers, lawyers and judges, who unwittingly shaped the history of that most grisly and storied of laws.