'The True Stories of History's Deadliest Women', this powerful collection of stories about 40 women who murdered for revenge, love and even pleasure is rife with historical details that will have any true crime junkie on the edge of their seat. In every tragic story men are expected to be the killers and there are countless studies and works of art made about male violence. However, when women are featured in stories about murder they are rarely portrayed as predators but as prey. But here are women that are impulsive and angry and messy and inconvenient, violent and depraved, bloodthirsty women who turn the trope of a damsel in distress on its head and commit some of the most unforgivable acts of all time. Their penchant for cruelty and deception, paired with an utter lack of remorse, makes them true-crime villains of the highest order. Gruesome and surprising, here are lesser-known women alongside Lizzie Borden, Virginia Hall and Mary I, pretty poisoners, black widows, scorned women, murderous mercenaries, killer queens and avenging angels. 176pp, well illus. in colour.

The author speculates that there were five times as many murders in Tudor times than our own, and among the 30 murders investigated here some are well known, whereas others represent dark deeds lurking well out of sight. Among the population of just over four million many murders were domestic, involving sex and extra-marital affairs, with financial matters coming second. No surprises there, then. Almost everyone in the 16th century would have had access to a knife or dagger, while poisoning was considered to be a method favoured by women and servants and was much feared by men because it could be done secretly and was hard to prove. As the century wore on, a gun became the assassination method of choice. Among the period's unsolved murders is the question of who killed the playwright Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's rival, who was stabbed in a pub brawl in 1593. The perpetrator was acquitted as having acted in self-defence, but Marlowe was a spy in the notorious intelligence network of Sir Francis Walsingham and there were plenty of people who wanted him out of the way. Amy Robsart, the wife of Robert Dudley, is the centre of another famous unsolved case. Did she fall downstairs, or was she pushed? The stigma of suspicion meant that her husband Robert Dudley would never be able to marry Queen Elizabeth, a possibility which was already being gossiped about at court as a result of their flirtation. The murder of David Riccio, the secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, was a political act in which her husband Lord Darnley was implicated, and soon Darnley's own life was also forfeit. The chief suspect, Bothwell, was acquitted and with outrageous daring proceeded to marry Mary, but an unstoppable train of events had been put in motion. Meanwhile the unknown Anne Brewen and her lover John Parker poisoned Anne's husband and were convicted when neighbours heard them rowing about it through the wall. 207pp, paperback, photos.

An idyllic English village on the isle of Purbeck in Dorset, Tyneham and the whole of the surrounding valley was evacuated at short notice towards the end of 1943 to form a long-distance gunnery range. The derelict houses can still be visited and form a monument to the sacrifice made by the local people. Notice of eviction was posted on 16 November, and the evacuation was completed a month later, removing 255 villagers from their houses, some of whom did not survive the shock and the winter hardship. The evacuation took place under cover of official secrecy and those responsible, including the head of local civil defence, Mrs Evelyn Bond, found it a harrowing experience. Churchill pledged that the villagers would return, but in 1947 Attlee's government retained it as one of seven "contentious areas" where no reconciliation of civilian and military interests was found possible. The area's MP Lord Hinchingbrooke led the protests, assisted by celebrities such as Brains Trust veteran CEM Joad, but to no avail. The author charts the continuing protests revived in the 1960s by Rodney Legg and the Tyneham Action Group. This massive book puts the fate of Tyneham and the Lulworth ranges in the context of the society and politics of the era, starting with the use of the area as a tank firing range in the 1920s. The author sees Tyneham as the focus for different kinds of English patriotism, with protesters including demobilised combatants, Tory grandees and bohemians embracing a back-to-nature lifestyle. In the 1930s the poet, visionary and rural campaigner Rolf Gardiner set up an influential arts centre at Springhead. Gardiner had travelled extensively in Germany and admired some aspects of the Hitler youth movement, leading the author to ask "No such thing as a Dorset Nazi party?" This book was controversial on its first release in 1995, and it makes an interesting read. 15.6 x 23.3 cm, 650 pages, softback, photos, A reissue of Patrick Wright's 1995 classic.

A searingly honest memoir of life, policing, and falling apart, Blue is a memoir of crime and calamity, of adventure and achievement, of friendship and failure, of laughter and loss, of the very best and worst of humanity, of serious illness and slow recovery. It is an intensely moving and personal insight into what it is to be a police officer in Britain today. John Sutherland joined the Met in 1992, rising quickly through the ranks. He worked across the capital, experiencing first hand the enormous satisfaction as well as the endless trauma that a life in blue can bring. There were career-defining moments - commanding armed sieges, saving lives and helping to take dangerous people off the streets, but for every case with a happy ending, there were others that ended in desperate sadness. Early in 2013, John suffered a major breakdown and consequent battle with crippling depression. After a career spent racing to be the first at the scene of crimes and catastrophes, he found himself in pieces, unable to put one foot in front of the other. His last operational posting was the Borough Commander for Southwark and he was an experienced Hostage and Crisis Negotiator having served on both the national and international cadres. Now he is a popular crime writer. With a new epilogue for this paperback edition, 288pp.

Lionel 'Buster' Crabb was a drinker, gambler, womaniser and lover of fast cars and gadgets. A unique, brave and controversial man, he worked for the Royal Navy and most of the British Intelligence Services for several decades. His exploits were often recreated by Ian Fleming with his exciting James Bond books. Many of Crabb's former colleagues have contributed to this wonderful read together with previously unseen images and personal drawings. A British naval frogman and bomb disposal expert, Crabb worked directly under Fleming during WW2 at Naval Intelligence and went on to conduct covert operations for both SIS and MI5. Elements from his dangerous missions and eccentric lifestyle were later incorporated into Fleming's novels. His inventions sparked the role of Q; Miss Moneypenny was based on Crabb's aunt Kitty Jarvis, and his underwater battle with enemy divers became a crucial scene in Thunderball. During a secret dive beneath a Russian warship in 1957, Crabb disappeared without a trace. One year later, a decapitated and handless body was found, sparking a major row between the government, the secret services and the Admiralty that still smoulders today. Investigative journalist Don Hale has helped quash convictions and miscarriages of justice cases and here packs in interesting facts and exclusive photographs. Apologies for some poor editing. 368pp, illustrated paperback.

Gang warfare, audacious bank heists, floral tributes for James Bulger, killing sprees and IRA bombs, the gallery uses photographs from Mirrorpix's impressive archive. It is a firsthand look at some of Britain's darkest moments. Because courtroom trials are never televised, the public must rely on the quaint tradition of courtroom sketches and newspaper reports, the one realm of crime journalism that has remained unchanged over the last century. When it comes to crime scenes, criminals and police procedure, our media is now being allowed increasingly intimate coverage with CCTV and bodycam footage. For most of the past century however it was the work of the press photographer that got us as close to the real crime as we could ever wish to get. The haunting quality of this gallery of pictures partly lies in what they leave to our worried imaginations. A crime scene with the victim covered up, the front of a house that holds dreadful secrets within. The face of a serial killer. We may never hear the voices of Dr Crippen, Dr Reginald Christie or John George Haigh. Instead we gaze at their photographs, searching for a hint of evil in their unremarkable faces. Here are Whitechapel streets, the murder scene of 41 year old Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute who was Jack the Ripper's first victim and every other one of his victims, captured here in nostalgic photographs, and some of the tatty old houses long since demolished. We see macabre scenes such as police digging for bodies at No. 10 Rillington Place and removing furniture for forensic examination. Members of the general public, little boys in particular, climb the fence to look over as detectives search for remains and clues at the scene of the Acid Bath Murders. See scenes from the search and digging on Saddleworth Moor in October 1965 looking for victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and a poignant picture of the mother of Lesley Ann Downey looking on. Angry crowds greet the murderers outside the court in Manchester and a worried but good looking young Ian Brady is taken away in a police car in May 1966, his image captured through the window. There is the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe case, searching the garden at 23 Cranley Gardens home of serial killer Dennis Nilsen, a picture of the bathroom where he butchered and dismembered the bodies of his victims and the actual tie he used to strangle his victims. Rosemary and Fred West and their notorious basement is pictured, Dr Harold Shipman's surgery in Hyde, Dr Hawley Crippen extradited back to Britain from Canada in August 1910 following the murder of his wife, caught on camera as he boards the ship, and his accomplice and lover Ethel Neave in the dock at the Old Bailey in October 1910. Fully illus, 144pp, 17 x 19cm.

Sub-titled 'A Lawyer's Stories of Murder, Guilt and Innocence', William Clegg QC in 27 short chapters covers the Wimbledon Common Murder, Perry Mason and the Art of Advocacy, The Murder of Samantha Bisset, The Chillenden Murders, Defending Fraudsters, Winning the Trust of a Judge, How to Appeal to a Jury, War Crimes in the Balkans, Rivalry and Camaraderie Inside Chambers, The Murder of Jill Dando, A Ghetto Shoot-Out in Jamaica, The Murder of Joanna Yeates, The Phone Hacking Trial and more. 'How can I defend someone I know is guilty? It's the question I am asked most often... How can I, a decent man, speak up for a racist or murderer?' Having defended the accused for almost 50 years, Clegg is perfectly positioned to give the inside story for anyone who wants to know the reality of a murder trial. In his astonishing and fascinating memoir, the murder-case lawyer revisits his most intriguing and high-profile trials, from the acquittal of Colin Stagg to the question How do you sway a jury? He lays bare the secrets of his profession, the moral dilemmas, and the unbearable tension while waiting for a verdict. 287pp, paperback.