In the darkness of World War Two, a murderer strikes... Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express 'He stood very still for a moment. He said he had a sixth sense that warned him of danger. The fact that more murderous attempts had been made on his life did not affect his belief in his instinct. He said that in his profession a man had to harden himself to take risks. That was what his clients paid him for, "and," he would add, "they pay damn well." ' Death in the Blackout takes place in the heart of World War II and opens as a bomb drops uncomfortably close to detective Arthur Crook's London flat, setting off a mysterious chain of events.

Nostalgic recollections of wartime Britain often forget that when the blackout was enforced at night in an attempt to foil Nazi bombers a crime wave, cloaked by the inky black darkness, ensued on many of our streets. There were petty crimes, robberies, sexual assaults and, as The Blackout Murders reveals, some horrific murders took place on our home front during the Second World War. Some of them still rank among the most shocking crimes in modern British history. Some of the murders recounted within the pages of this book remain infamous, others are almost forgotten and some remain unsolved to this day. Several cases have new light shed on them from recently released archives and records uncovered by the author. Every case has been carefully selected for its reflection of wartime conditions and each one has a powerful, poignant and tragic story to tell. Readers will gain insights into the darker narrative of our home front and learn about some of the men and women who strove to maintain law and order under the most challenging circumstances. Others innovated and developed ground-breaking forensic techniques to identify bodies, recognize if foul play had occurred and as a direct result brought murderers to justice who may otherwise have gone undetected and unpunished. Anyone reading The Blackout Murders will never look at Britain's Home Front during the Second World War in the same way again.

The German 'Blitz' that followed the Battle of Britain killed tens of thousands and laid waste to large areas of many British cities. And although the destruction of 1940-1 was never repeated on the same scale, fears that Hitler possessed a secret weapon of mass destruction never entirely died, and were partially realized in the VI and V2 raids of 1944-5. The British and American response to the 'Blitz', especially from 1943 onwards, was massive and incomparably more devastating - with apocalyptic consequences for German cities such as Hamburg, Dresden, and Berlin, to name but the most prominent. In this ground-breaking new book, German historian Dietmar Süss investigates the effects of the bombing on both Britain and Nazi Germany, showing how these two very different societies sought to withstand the onslaught and keep up morale amidst the material devastation and psychological trauma that was visited upon them. And, as he reflects in the conclusion, this is not a story that is safely confined to the past: the debate over the rights and the wrongs of the mass bombing of British and German cities during World War II remains a highly emotional subject even today.

In a small town located in northern Spain, electricity has mysteriously stopped working. Batteries, cellphones, vehicles, and even all types of machines don't work anymore. The government sends several agents to investigate the murder of the owner of one of the bars in town, the rape of a girl, and the suicide of the local priest. Apparently, all those deaths are related to the blackout.

Two days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government imposed blackout regulations across the nation as it was believed that in the event of war, Germany would very quickly begin conducting air raids on British towns and cities. The measures included covering windows in a dark, thick material at night to ensure no light could be seen from the outside. The use of vehicle headlamps was also prohibited, which resulted in a number of accidents and pedestrians being killed. These restrictions, enforced by Air Raid Precaution wardens and the police, were for the benefit and safety of the British public, but it also unintentionally made life a lot less dangerous for members of the criminal fraternity, allowing them to go about their regular night time activities with less chance of being caught by the police. As a result, during one week in February 1942, Gordon Cummins, RAF, was able to move around freely to carry out his attacks and make it back to his billet without being caught, or even stopped, by the police. The very restrictions put in place to protect the British public from German bombers actually placed women in danger from men such as Cummins: three of his victims were known prostitutes, as was at least one of the two women he is known to have attacked, but who survived. All of Cummins victims were attacked during the hours of darkness while the ‘blackout was in place, leading to him becoming known as the Blackout Ripper.

This book is the first major study of the blackout in the Second World War. Developing a comparative history of this system of civil defense in Britain and Germany, it begins by exploring how the blackout was planned for in both countries, and how the threat of aerial bombing framed its development. It then examines how well the blackout was adhered to, paying particular regard to the tension between its military value and the difficulties it caused civilians. The book then moves on to discuss how the blackout undermined the perception of security on the home front, especially for women. The final chapter examines the impact of the blackout on industry and transport. Arguing that the blackout formed an integral part in mobilising and legitimating British and German wartime discourses of community, fairness and morality, the book explores its profound impact on both countries.

Elsewhere, Within Here is an engaging look at travel across national borders--as a foreigner, a tourist, an immigrant, a refugee--in a pre- and post-9/11 world. Who is welcome where? What does it mean to feel out of place in the country you call home? When does the stranger appear in these times of dark metamorphoses? These are some of the issues addressed by the author as she examines the cultural meaning and complexities of travel, immigration, home and exile. The boundary, seen both as a material and immaterial event, is where endings pass into beginnings. Building upon themes present in he.

A bibliography of various mystery novels published between November 1976 and Fall 1992.

A classic murder mysteryfrom award winning crime writer, Robert Barnard It was midday on December 21st in the Norwegian city of Tromsø when the boy was last seen – a tall, blond boy swathed in an anorak and scarf against the Arctic noon. He was not seen again, not until three months later, when Professor Mackenzie’s dog started sniffing around in the snow and uncovered a human ear . . . attached to a naked corpse. Nobody knew who he was, or where he had come from. And after three months it was almost impossible to track down the identity of the corpse. But Inspector Fagermo refused to give up – and as he probed deeper into the Arctic city he began to discover a dangerous conspiracy of blackmail, espionage, and cold-blooded murder. Regarded as Robert Barnard's best, Death in a Cold Climate is a scandi detective novel with a captivating mystery at its heart.