A Very British Murder: The Story of a National Obsession

Worsley writes very well, and this book is a quick read. It deals with the British obsession with mysteries and delves into both historical murders and literary ones. It's a different look at this topic.

A well researched and enjoyable book. Anyone who loves a good British mystery novel will want to read A Very British Murder. She touches on history and all the well known authors, as well as some that may not be as familiar to American audiences.

Interesting book. Well written

Excellent.a very good read.

Shame, shame. Bought this book and Lucy Worsley's The Art of the English Murder. Although they have different ISBN numbers, they are exactly the same book. EXACTLY!!I enjoyed reading one but to send the other back to England! won't be happening.

"Murder is always a good story" and this is a great read about why this is so true.

A great book - very interesting and informative

fascinating study of our grizzly curiosity.

I usually enjoy a Lucy Worsley book and there is nothing better than the thrill of a good murder (however wrong that feels!).The book is 294 pages split into 24 chapters.The secondary title is "The curious story of how crime was turned into art" which summarises the book very nicely.Ture crime is used as a starting point to show the fascination and natural progression to creating fictional equivalents.This book was first published in 2013 and it would be interesting to see what the author thinks of the recent explosion in availability of true crime podcasts and "tik tok detectives".The purpose of the book is to explore the curiosity with murder but it is much more than that as it looks at the early days of the police and detection methods. LW always does a great job with her research and communicates it in an accessible, engaging way.A couple of times the author describes finding places in London today connected to murders that happened a long time ago - I really enjoyed this link and would have been happy to see more of this.I found it remarkable how much change there has been in Britain just in the 10 years since the book was published - LW remarks at people traipsing through a murder scene 200 years ago and says that would be unacceptable now - yet consider the reaction recently when a murder went missing from a river bank and thousands of people went to the area to "investigate". So many changes in the world but perhaps human nature doesn't change at all.The development of crime fiction I found particularly interesting as it is a genre I read a lot. The introduction of the detective seemed to give the public more interest in the solution of the crime rather than the retribution itself - maybe we all love a puzzle? The gradual evolution of the crime novel seems to explain a lot about the state of the genre today.The nineteenth century research is used extensively but it seemed that the author lost some enthusiasm when she reached the 20th century with the focus shifting from the real murders to the authors - I preferred the more balanced approach shown in the first half of the book.I love LW's honest attraction to the most shocking murders as they are entertaining. This proves her point of how easily murder has turned into art as it titillates the reader. It is clear that is also excites the author and her enthusiasm for the topic is clear.

Ich liebe Lucy Worsley. Ihre Dokumentationen sind interessant und ihre Bücher kurzweilig. Bei diesem Buch ist das auch so, ich kann nur mit dem Thema nicht viel anfangen. Wer LW kennenlernen möchte, hat mit diesem Buch einen guten Einstieg

As with all Lucy Worsley books, this was an excellent read! Couldn’t put it down.

I bought this by mistake, but decided to keep it. I'm glad that I did.It is well written, and entertaining. Judging by the sections where I had prior knowledge, it is well researched.I do, however, think that it ran out of steam towards the end. The post Second World War section was rushed, and there was nothing about the current state of play regarding the never ending fascination with the genre. There is, for example nothing about the development of the historical mysteries, which is now a significant sub-genre. There is also nothing about another significant sub-genre, the "cosy" mysteries that deliberately hark back to the Golden Age.I am a fan of detective stories from the Golden Age, and I was disappointed that there are several examples where Ms Worsley took quotes totally out of context. There is an undercurrent of "woke" ideas, particularly in the later sections, and the misused quotes are often made to prove a point about the failings of the authors when facing this "woke" agenda. It is for this reason that I reduced my rating to 4*.I'd recommend this book to fans of the genre, and also to historians. It's generally a good read, and I doubt that many would have picked up on my criticisms unless they have the same interest in the Golden Age authors. I've given it 4*, but had I been able to, I'd have given 4.5*

great book, well written