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GANGLAND BOSSES presents the stories of true infamous British criminals - Jack Spot and Billy Hill. These two men were at times friends and at others business rivals. Their lives were shrouded in secrecy and lies. The lies were due to both public perception and their own desires, actions and propaganda. Both men wanted to have control of the London underworld and both would stop at nothing to gain this control. GANGLAND BOSSES attempts to put the roles of Jack Spot and Billy Hill into perspective in the history of criminal activities during this period. Morton and Parker have worked to find the truth about Spot and Hill as well as the reality of the world they inhabited. Whether they are truly successful is something even they do not know. James Morton and Gerry Parker have written a book that captures some of the hype of modern crime fiction/non-fiction fans. The history of criminals, their lives and exploits have long been a popular subject. This topic has gone in and out of favor with each passing generation. Each culture and generation had its own fascination with the topic - be it morality or simple curiosity. Morton and Parker have taken the lives of two men not well known outside of Britain and have attempted to make their history a valid addition to world history. This book is obviously well researched and has numerous footnotes. Unfortunately, what this book really needed was a good copy-editor. While some grammatical choices are merely due to an author's writing style, it should not dominate the book. In some cases, a clause is grammatically correct in the beginning of a paragraph but incorrect by the end. There are also several sentences that are not concise and contain words that do not fit the sentence. These types of mistakes should be noticeable long before a book goes to press - especially since it does detract from the point of the book. The topic of the book is extremely interesting, but its presentation is lacking.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, September 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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