Saturday, January 31, 2009

Five best: books about Scotland Yard

Arthur Herman, author most recently of Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, named a five best list of books about Scotland Yard for the Wall Street Journal.

One title on his list:
The Scotland Yard Files
by Alan Moss and Keith Skinner
National Archives Press, 2006

Former Chief Superintendent Alan Moss and crime writer Keith Skinner browsed through Scotland Yard's files in the British National Archives to pull together a list of the 12 most important "firsts" in criminal detection. They include the first "wanted" picture, the first use of a line-up, and the first convictions based on fingerprints (in 1902) and on ballistic evidence. No fan of "Cold Case" or "Criminal Minds" or any of the countless other television crime dramas should be without a copy of this book or ignore the debt that every forensic police division owes to the pioneers at Scotland Yard.
Read about Number One on Herman's list.

--Marshal Zeringue