A Bespoke Murder

May 1915. With thousands of Britons fighting in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe and continue the fight against crime, espionage, and military desertion.

In London, Scotland Yard is already overstretched when the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks across the city. Among the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop.

Initially, Jacob's killing appears to be the tragic excess of wartime hysteria—but when it transpires that Jacob had been stabbed amidst the flames, his safe ransacked, and his daughter Ruth raped, the possibility that these assaults were long-premeditated crimes becomes unavoidable.

Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer and Ruth's assailants. As their hunt carries them from the crime-ridden streets of wartime London across the Channel to the chaos of the front line, the horrors of crime and policing at a time of total war are brought vividly to life.

A Bespoke Murder by Edward Marston masterfully captures the complexities and challenges faced by those tasked with maintaining law and order during such turbulent times.