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Reviews tagging 'Body horror'
Missing Presumed Murdered; Cases of Convictions Without a Corpse by Dick Kirby
1 review
mercurialbooks's review
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
2.0
Firstly, thank you to Pen and Sword for granting my wish and letting me access this book past its archive date on Netgalley. I was very excited to read a novel about UK crime history. Missing, Presumed Murdered is about historical police investigations into missing person cases that resulted in murder convictions, despite never discovering a body.
Initially I was put off by the writing style of the author but soon realised it was quite similar to listening to a podcast rather than reading a book and so continued. I'm aware from other reviews that not many managed to continue because of the conversational nature of the text. Dick Kirby makes his personal opinions well known throughout the book and this may put off many readers, there homophobic references for example, with no self-awareness from the author that this may not be acceptable in today's society.
The cases themselves, I initially enjoyed learning about them because they were interesting and varied. Following the police in finding evidence to make a case of murder without a corpse was something I'd not personally read about before. However the second half of the book was dedicated to one case and one I quickly lost interest in. This last case was mostly dedicated to talking about the policemen themselves and how they had got involved. I would have personally preferred less focus on the single case and instead inclusion of more modern cases as I know there have been plenty of interesting ones since.
Initially I was put off by the writing style of the author but soon realised it was quite similar to listening to a podcast rather than reading a book and so continued. I'm aware from other reviews that not many managed to continue because of the conversational nature of the text. Dick Kirby makes his personal opinions well known throughout the book and this may put off many readers, there homophobic references for example, with no self-awareness from the author that this may not be acceptable in today's society.
The cases themselves, I initially enjoyed learning about them because they were interesting and varied. Following the police in finding evidence to make a case of murder without a corpse was something I'd not personally read about before. However the second half of the book was dedicated to one case and one I quickly lost interest in. This last case was mostly dedicated to talking about the policemen themselves and how they had got involved. I would have personally preferred less focus on the single case and instead inclusion of more modern cases as I know there have been plenty of interesting ones since.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Body horror, and Homophobia
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