Murderous Sussex ~ John J. Eddleston
This book by John J. Eddleston has sat on my shelf for as long as I can remember. If I am honest with you I can’t even remember where I bought it or if I was gifted it. Nevertheless, I have always been intrigued by this book but just never got round to actually picking it up. This month’s theme was History and thought this would be the perfect time to delve into the murderous past of the county I call home.
Collated in this book are some of the worst crimes in Sussex from the 20th century. All of which ended in the perpetrator being executed. The book is split into 26 chapters, each one telling the story of a different crime. The crimes span from as early as 1900 to the more recent 1961. One of the most prolific being the crimes of John George Haigh better known as the ‘Acid Bath Killer’ who lived in Crawley during his killings. He was charged for 6 murder but admitted to at least 9. He would brutally murder his victims and then dispose of the body in sulphuric acid. Afterwards, forging the victims signature to sell their possessions and access their savings. This was the case out of the one retold by Eddleston.
That being said at times I did find that it was taking me quite a long time to get through the book. For a book, just under 200 pages, it took some time to get through. The text was very small and each page was packed with information. This was necessarily a bad thing but at times it felt like a bit of a drag and that I was fighting a never-ending battle. Although all the information was highly intriguing to me due to my love of true crime at times it did feel like information overload. Maybe this was due to me reading the whole book in not very many sittings and would benefit more if read over time dipping in and out of the chapters you want to read.
I gave this book by John J. Eddleston a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating because it just wasn’t as thought-provoking as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the killer of Sussex’ past.
M🌸
