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.
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