Terribly True Crime Stories

Review also includes:

Terribly True Spy Stories, 978-0439950206

Two great collections of ‘real-life’ stories from the ever-popular Terry Deary. Crime Stories includes dramatic recreations of daring robberies, bloodthirsty kidnappings and scary hijackings. Tales are interspersed with factfiles that include details of other similar cases. The stories range from the highwayman Dick Turpin, outlaw Ned Kelly and the pirate William Fly to the Great Train Robbery. But there is a moral epilogue to the book: for all the suspense and excitement of crime stories, real crime involves victims and their families, it involves teachers who wonder where it all went wrong. ‘I know,’ writes Deary, ‘because I was one of those teachers.’ Spy Stories does not feature Bond because of course he was not real, but it does include famous spies from Alexander the Great to the Mata Hari. There is lots of fascinating detail on codes, disguises, spy tricks and international espionage. Ideal for supersleuths and armchair agents, especially boys.