Some crimes expose a gap in the law. Others reveal that the safeguards already in place have failed.
From the murder of Edward Drummond in 1843 to the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 and the attacks at Fishmongers’ Hall and Streatham in 2019 and 2020, Gavin Drake follows twenty crimes that helped reshape Britain’s legal landscape.
These are stories of victims and families, investigations and miscarriages of justice, campaigns and contested reforms. Together, they show how laws change—and why changing the law is sometimes only the beginning.