The thirty-three cases in this excellent book give a unique and fascinating insight into life in the Victorian period, in Liverpool and beyond. Although murder can never be condoned, it is clear from the accounts of the lives of the accused and their victims that the world they inhabited was a harsh one, where people were pushed to the very end of their tethers on a daily basis. It seems little wonder sometimes that people snapped under the strain, and this is clearly what happened in some of the cases described here. Others, however, are much more brutal and premeditated and still have the ability to shock 150 years on.