First World War Trials and Executions

 First World War Trials and Executions by Simon Webb is a book about crimes taking place during World War I (1914-1918) and the executions of the criminals that took place. The book is broken up into 10 chapters, each one about different murders or espionage that was taking place in England at the time. They aren't mini-biographies, but mini-stories that show how trials and executions took place during the First World War.

There are ten chapters, with each chapter covering a different type of crime: murders with a razor, an axe, a poker, a gun, beatings, knives, child murder, and spying. Each chapter gives great details without being overly gruesome, at least not to me. However, as I mentioned, there is child murder, as well as spousal abuse and uxoricide, the murder of a wife or girlfriend. The book does talking about botched hangings, which is as unpleasant as it sounds. There are all three appendices that go into more detail about the hangmen, how they did the actual hanging, and a list of the executions. 

Overall, I found the book to be very interesting. I don't know much about the World War I time period, so it was nice to learn something new, even if it was the unfortunate murders of so many people. Everything is laid out neatly and explained very well, without being provocative. Simon Webb takes great care to make these people real and not just facts on a page.

The section I thought was the most interesting was chapter three, which was about the spies in England during the time. It was darkly funny in a way because the spies the Germans chose were very bad and the Germans themselves were so inept at spying, keeping the same address and having the same contacts for almost all the executed spies in this section.

I would recommend this book if you like true crime, World War I, or just want to learn more about the era.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lawmen of the Wild West

Lawmen of the Wild West by Terry C. Treadwell are minibiographies of some well known and not as well known lawmen. The introduction has a lot of information about the background of the jobs, from the 14th century up until the time of the men in this book. It also describes what the western lawmen, from Sheriffs to US Marshals, did in their day to day and what they had to deal with. There are a ton of pictures, not only of the famous lawmen, but different types of badges, images of the outlaws that have been killed, and much more.

The book starts with Robert Forsyth, who was an early US Marshal and the first to be killed in the line of duty. Luckily, the biographies get longer after the first one. There are thirty-five chapters about individual lawmen talked about in the book including; Judge Isaac Parker, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, Bass Reeves, Pat Garrett, and Seth Bullock. Many of the biographies have some historical background about the times, the range wars, and the outlaws these men chased. The book also shows that the Wild West wasn't like the old westerns have shown us, black and white, good versus bad. A lot of the lawmen had an outlaw past or used their badges to gain for themselves.

I enjoyed the book, but at times found it slow, especially when the stories diverted away from the men being written about. I understood why the author had to add in the extra details, it just ruined the flow for me a bit. I was also thrown whenever the author talked about the Earps and their exploits. He doesn't seem to like the family at all. I did like how some biographies mentioned a man that the next biography was about. I also enjoyed how many of the men popped up in the others stories, showing that they all knew and maybe respected each other. There is a companion book about the outlaws of the west, which I will have to check out

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.