THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NONFICTION 2023Wendy Josephs gripping account of the law at work reads like a cliffhanger. Sunday TimesAbsolutely superb. 5 stars for sheer readability alone. Her Honour entertains as she educates us about murder about the law and about how we human beings are shaped as we create the culture we live with. PHILIPPA PERRY author of THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READEvery day in the UK lives are suddenly brutally wickedly taken away. Victims are shot or stabbed. Less often they are strangled or suffocated or beaten to death. Rarely they are poisoned pushed off high buildings drowned or set alight. Then there are the many who are killed by dangerous drivers or corporate gross negligence. There are a lot of ways you can kill someone. I know because Ive seen most of them at close quarters.Highprofile murder cases all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines for every unlawful death tells a story. But unlike most of us a judge doesnt get to turn the page and move on. Nor does the defendant or the family of the victim nor the many other people who populate the court room.And yet each of us has a vested interest in what happens there. And while most people have only the sketchiest idea of what happens inside a Crown Court any one of us could end up in the witnessbox or even in the dock.With breathtaking skill and deep compassion the author describes how cases unfold and illustrates exactly what its like to be a murder trial judge and a witness to human good and bad. Sometimes very bad.The fracture lines that run through our society are becoming harder and harder to ignore. From a unique vantage point the author warns that we do so at our peril.The most exceptional book I have read in a long time. CLARE MACKINTOSHA very rare gem. written with authority humility and compassion. Compellingly clever and sharply honest. PROFESSOR DAME SUE BLACK author of ALL THAT REMAINSRiveting thoughtprov