This was a good week for the series of Best New True Crime Stories edited by Mitzi Szereto. The third volume, Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues and Criminals was released and the second, Small Towns, was selected by Book Authority as one of the best new books on Criminology. I contributed to both, benefiting from Mitzi’s skill as an editor. My original draft for the Well-Mannered Crooks book was ponderous and sometimes confusing because the subject, Charles Chadwick, used multiple aliases, moved around the world, and married ten women.

One of my challenges was explaining how a world relatively close to ours, Chadwick died in 1952, was different. He took weeks to travel between continents and days to get around New South Wales. He was able to commit the same offences in neighbouring towns without being detected. Today it is harder to operate under assumed names, marriage is not as important in society and scammers send emails.

The next book in Mitzi’s series, Crimes of Passion, Obsession, and Revenge is released in August and is now available for pre-order.

Paul Williams is a writer of fiction and non-fiction best known for his Jack the Ripper Suspects: The Definitive Guide and Encyclopedia.