John Barber

TRUE CRIME & MURDER MYSTERIES

True Crime – Crime Fiction: entertaining and absorbing Murder Mysteries – Anthologies – Historical – Literary – Memoirs.


Out of the ordinary stories, the weird and wonderful! And don’t miss his Best of British blog!

John Barber has been writing professionally since 1996 beginning with articles for magazines on social and local history. His first published book in 2002 was a non-fiction work entitled The Camden Town Murder which re-opened an investigation into the famous murder mystery of 1907.

John Barber Website
www.johnbarber.com

Books by Johm Barber
www.johnbarber.com/books.html


Exhumation of A Murder

The Life and Trial of Major Armstrong
Robin Odell
(Criminology) (True Crime)


Exhumation of A Murder
The Life and Trial of Major Armstrong
Robin Odell
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 186992892x New ISBN 9 781869 928926
£15.00/US$22.00
Subjects: Criminology / True Crime

Click HERE for UK edition

Click HERE for USA&AUS edition

”The case of Major Armstrong, the celebrated Hay Poisoner, the only solicitor ever to hang, is one of those classic, old-fashioned English murders which hail from the heyday of court-room drama when, with the hangman lurking in the pine-and-panel wings and the black cap an object of horrifyingly alarming currency rather than mere symbolism, the loser in ‘the black dock’s dreadful pen’ lost all. It comes straight out of the pages of George Orwell’s essayed nostalgia for the era of the Great British Murder, when, after a Sunday lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire, you put your feet up on the sofa and, with a good strong cup of mahogany-brown tea, read all about the latest ‘good’ murder in the News of the World. And the Armstrong case was unquestionably one of the best; right up there in the grand tradition of Dr Palmer of Rugeley, Neill Cream, Mrs Maybrick, Dr Crippen, Seddon, and George Joseph Smith.”
– Richard Whittington-Egan


”Now the case itself, as has been said to you, is a remarkable one, a deeply interesting one and I doubt whether any of us engaged here today have in recollection so remarkable a case in its incidents.”
– Mr Justice Darling, Herefordshire Winter Assizes, Thursday, 13th April 1922


”On the rim of the twentieth century loom the Titans – Seddon, Armstrong, Crippen, G.J. Smith and Landru, and then, in the era of booze and bullets, art descends literally to hack-work.”
– Dorothy Dunbar, Blood in the Parlour


Praise for EXHUMATION OF A MURDER

”This is, indisputably, a comprehensive study; embracing every aspect, exploring every angle; chronicling events and interpreting participants from remote and obscure beginnings to violent or peaceful ends. I advise anyone who has long subsisted on intriguing scraps and morsels about Armstrong to have this book ready to hand when leisure offers time for a satisfying repast…it is unique, and will inevitably become the last word on Armstrong and the case which bears his name.”
– Edgar Lustgarten

EXHUMATION OF A MURDER is the fruit of painstaking research over many years by J.H.H.Gaute, a well-known authority on the literature of crime and a former editor on the genre for a major publisher, and the late Dr Hubert Trumper who lived at Cusop, near Hay-On-Wye, the village where Armstrong lived and carried out his crime. This book contains a wealth of documents and photographs.

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SPECIAL EVENT

Featuring ROBIN ODELL in HAY-ON-WYE, at Murder & Mayhem Bookshop, Lion Street.
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Hay_clocktower
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On Saturday 2 September 2006, we travelled to the town of Hay-On-Wye to accompany Robin Odell for a book signing at the atmospheric Murder & Mayhem Bookshop, 39 Lion Street, where there is a good selection of True Crime and Murder & Mystery Fiction titles, by masters such as Dennis Wheatley, Sax Rohmer, Bram Stoker, and Robin Odell.

Robin was fresh from his lecture to the History of Medicine Society of Wales. Due to a booking mishap, it was relocated from Hay to Builth Wells! Even so there was a steady stream of interested customers and connoisseurs of the genre – some of whom, are shown in the photo: From left to right, Robin Odell, Anne & (sitting) Derek Addyman, Robin Odell’s partner ‘Non’, and holding glasses of wine are two lovely ladies, Joan & Friend. Thank you ; )
– Murder & Mayhem Bookshop, 5 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, HR3 5AA.

Hay-On-Wye is a good place with a buzz to visit. There are lots of bookshops covering subjects for every interest, as well as eating places and shops for more retail therapy. We stayed up the road in Hereford and were directed to the Rose Garden pub just north of the Roman Road in Munstone. The beer was excellent – Flowers IPA and the home made food really was just that. In Hay we had another lovely pint, Old Black Lion Ale at the Black Lion in Lion Street – Major Armstrong’s ‘local’ so they say – although not too local as his wife didn’t like him drinking! The food there was also really good. The cafe opposite the Clock Tower (see below) is very user friendly – newspapers, real coffee –


For information about Hay-On-Wye, including town maps, books, the Literary Festival, places to eat, hotels, B&Bs, shopping, and things to do, please check out the Official Hay-On-Wye Website www.hay-on-wye.co.uk

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JACK THE RIPPER IN FACT AND FICTION

Robin Odell
(Ripperology) (True Crime) (Criminology)

Jack The Ripper in Fact and Fiction
Robin Odell
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1869928-308
£15.00 / US $24.00
Subjects: Ripperology / True Crime / Criminology.

Click HERE for UK edition

Click HERE for USA edition

In the autumn of 1888, the streets of London were streets of terror. The cause – is a series of mysterious and apparently motiveless murders.

Respectable citizens cowered behind shuttered windows and multi-locked doors. Ironically, however, it was not respectable who were in danger.

The victims were all drawn from the trade which necessity still compelled to haunt dark alleys and doorways in dead of night – the prostitutes.

Theories on the identity of the murderer have been many and various: that he was a fashionable doctor, even that he was a she – a midwife.

Robin Odell has produced an absorbing factual reconstruction of all the crimes and a brilliant new theory, based on modern methods of detection,to solve the greatest mystery in British criminology. Most readers will accept his theory as the long-sought answer to a baffling real-life whodunit, as the most likely epitaph on a terror known as JACK THE RIPPER IN FACT AND FICTION.

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RESOURCES FOR CRIME & RIPPEROLOGY SPECIALISTS

Featuring: True Crime & Ripperology Conferences, Conventions, Seminars, Lectures, Moots, Forums, Societies, Crime Writers Guilds, Journals, Books, Media, Archives, Museums, Tours, Walks, Murder Mysteries, Detective Fiction.

LORETTA LAY
– is a Specialist Detective Fiction and True Crime Bookdealer and a leading authority on Jack The Ripper.
www.laybooks.com
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MURDER ONE UK
– Murder One UK is an online, mail order only bookseller and a successor to the famous Murder One bookshop that traded in the heart of Charing Cross Road for over twenty years.
www.murderone.co.uk
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CASEBOOK
– is the Web’s largest public Jack The Ripper Archive.
www.casebook.org
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JACK THE RIPPER FORUMS
– The place to be for all things Ripper.
www.jtrforums.com
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RIPPEROLOGIST
– The Journal of Jack The Ripper, East End and Victorian Studies, is available in electronic format on subscription.
www.ripperologist.co.uk
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THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
– Karyo Magellan’s website dedicated to Jack The Ripper.
www.karyom.com/The%20Whitechapel%20Murders.htm
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THE WHITECHAPEL SOCIETY 1888
– organize conferences, lectures, moots and tours on Jack The Ripper.
www.whitechapelsociety.com
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THE MUSEUM OF CRIME
www.themuseumofcrime.com
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JACK THE RIPPER WALK
www.jacktheripperwalk.com
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THE JACK THE RIPPER TOUR
www.thejacktherippertour.com
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JACK THE RIPPER TOUR
www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com
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CRIME & INVESTIGATION NETWORK
www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk
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MYSTERY WRITERS of AMERICA
www.mysterywriters.org
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RIPPER STREET / BBC TV series (DVDs)
– Haunted by the failure to catch Londonʼs most evil killer, Jack the Ripper, Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) now heads up the notorious H Division – the toughest police district in the East End. Charged with keeping order in the blood-stained streets of Whitechapel, Reid and his men fi nd themselves fi ghting to uphold justice and the rule of law; but always in the background lurks the fear of the Ripper – is he back for another reign of terror. The shadow of the Ripper is still felt in the neighbourhood by the vigilantes, the sensation-seeking newspaper hacks and the men who hunted – and failed to find – the notorious murderer. It seems that even though the notorious killer has disappeared, there are plenty more willing to stain the streets of Whitechapel with their victims’ blood…
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