The Italian Boy, by Sarah Wise (Jonathan Cape, £17.99).

In November 1831, three drunken men staggered about the streets of London, trying to sell the body of an adolescent boy to various anatomy schools. There was nothing particularly odd about this: because not enough criminals were being hanged, professors of dissection were often chronically short of material, and readily accepted what were politely called 'things' or 'subjects' from body snatchers. But inspection of the boy's corpse quickly showed that he had been murdered, and a police investigation discovered that he was the latest victim of a grisly conspiracy that lured the desperate and homeless off the streets, killed them, and sold their bodies. Historian Sarah Wise's throughly researched and copiously illustrated account of the 'The Italian Boy' case neatly anatomises the justice system of pre-Victorian London and the everyday lives of its poor and its criminals. Aside from an unnecessary excursion into speculation about whether or not Charles Dickens reported on the trial at the Old Bailey, her narrative, often carried by the voices of the protagonists recovered from court and newspaper archives, is as richly detailed and grippingly entertaining as any thriller.

First appeared in Crime Time 40.

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