More on this when I review this book in detail, but there are some things that just seem to be givens - and one of those is the legendary stocism of the British people during the WWII Blitz. Of course all people don't behave well all the time, and logically I should have realised that there would be nefarious goings-on, especially during a complete blackout.
This is a fascinating book.
From the Blurb:
The perfect English murder as described by Orwell is the stuff of Agatha Christie - indeed, it is the stuff of fiction. It's neat and hardly messy. Whereas in wartime London, the killers who plied their merciless trade did so using more barbaric methods. They used gas, ropes and guns, corrosive chemicals and tin openers. Some operated under the cover of dark, emerging when the city was at its most vulnerable; others simply struck whenever opportunity presented itself....
There was more to wartime London than stiff upper-lips and rousing choruses of ‘Roll out the Barrel’. There was crime and plenty of it in the time of Blackouts, Blitz and Bloodshed, and it is chronicled here in this lively and accessible history . . .
Criminals hunted their prey without fear of reprisal. Many operated under the cover of darkness, emerging when the city sank into the oblivion of its nightly blackout; others simply struck whenever opportunity presented itself. At a time when Londoners were pulling together in the face of terrible adversity, there were an increasing number of looters, racketeers, terrorists, criminal gangs, prostitutes, rapists and murderers stalking the bomb-ravaged, panic-ridden streets, and this book chronicles the rapid rise of crime throughout this turbulent period.