This was such a fascinating book. It was very well written and easy to follow. I recommend this to all true crime fans

Signs of Murder was a 'great' small-town true crime. What separated this from many other criminologists' autobiographical works is that this focuses on one seemingly solved case in the authors home town - and that definitely shone through in his writing.
A good solid read.

A really well researched account of the wrong conviction or a 1973 murder in the small town in Scotland. Criminologist David Wilson searches for the truth 40 yrs after the murder, a crime he remembers well from being a young boy in the town where it happened. Well written and incredibly interesting.

In 1973 a woman was murdered in the small town of Carluke in Scotland. The police quickly found a suspect and after his confession he was sent to prison. Case closed. Except that very few people felt the man was guilty and most felt that the police had managed to convict the wrong man. Professor David Wilson grew up in Carluke and remembers the murder of Margaret McLoughlin but now he is an eminent criminologist and it is time to reconsider the case that has haunted his home town for almost 50 years.
As a true crime story, this is really great. The murder and the investigation are examined in great detail and placed into context within a small town. However I also felt that the narrative was very long-winded and repeated itself in several places. A worthy story but should have been edited more effectively.

This was a meticulously researched and compellingly written account of a murder and a miscarriage of justice in a small Scottish town, made more impactful because of Davis Wilson's own close connection to the area. Evoked the era very well. A great read.

This was an interesting story, I have read other things by the author and I like his style, it is clear that the murder is very close to his heart and that he has put in a great deal of research and time into discovering the truth. I enjoyed the personal touch that Wilson gives it, often when reading true crime the story is told in a very impersonal way but because the author knows the area and the people this is not the case. It was a little slow in places however I feel that this is due to the authors diligence in his research. I do not wish to give the story away, however if the reader is looking for a "happy" ending this probably isn't going to be it. I think it is excellent that Wilson has brought this to the public arena especially as this is not necessarily the high profile case that some other murders are. The case was dealt with sensitively and respect shown to the victim without the gory details being laboured over.

I'm a big fan of true crime books and, living in Edinburgh, was really interested to read more about this story. I was very intrigued that David Wilson had lived in the town as a child when the murder took place, so not only is he an experience criminologist, but has a personal stake in the case as well.

Wilson returns to the town, where many of his family members still live, to investigate the case and its suspected wrong conviction. Many believe the man who was accused and jailed for the crime was innocent, and we're given a detailed background of the case as well as some interesting insights into police interview techniques and forensic psychology.

I absolutely flew through this book and recommend it to any true crime fans.

Being a law graduate this was right up my proverbial alley! I know of David Wilson through crime programmes on television and documentaries of killers in which he examines their psychological make-up. Here, he addresses and explores a horrendous miscarriage of justice, although aren't they all, that occurred in Carluke, Scotland. The expertise he brings to the case and the fascinating information you learn throughout makes this well worth a read. Highly recommended for those who, like me, are connoisseurs of true crime and who enjoy rumination on aspects such as law, forensic psychology and the implications and consequences of the case both on those involved on a personal level and wider society.

An interesting story about a miscarriage of justice , set in a small Scottish town.. a true crime story handled with sensitivity and very well written. I enjoyed the explanations of criminal profiling and the circumstances surrounding a miscarriage of justice. I hope that justice will be reached for the family. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Criminologist David Wilson returns to his hometown of Carluke in Lanarkshire in Scotland. to revisit a story of an
unsolved murder that continues to haunt his past .Officially though this isn't an "unsolved murder". A suspect was found guilty by a jury and his peers and so, as far as anyone official is concerned, the murder case has been "solved". The "murderer" has now done his time, and has been released from prison.

This is more of a research book. We are given a step by step by step guide to a case that the murderer had allegedly solved. The story takes place in Carluke, Scotland in the 1970's. Even the people of Carluke believe that the wrong man was convicted and another persons name is regularly given as the main suspect. David Wilson is meticulous in his research whether it's in his books or his TV show, David Wilson's Crime Files. This is a very informative read about a true crime story. This is a fantastic read for fans of True Crime.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #LittleBrownBookGroupUK and the author #DavidWilson for my ARC of #SigndOfMurder in exchange for an honest review

I started reading this last night. I thought I would finish it within the week as it was only 300 odd pages.

Well, I finished reading it within the week, alright. I stayed up all night to finish it.

I really like David Wilson, I watch him on TV all the time and I enjoy his style. He is authoritative yet also human in his approach. His explanation of what happened in cases always makes me pay attention.

I have read his other recent book about serial killers which I thoroughly enjoyed as it focused not on the killers, but on the sections of society they attacked.

This book is a personal book for David Wilson as it is about a murder that occurred in his hometown of Carluke when he was a young boy. After years of being asked about what he thinks happened, David heads home and tries to set the story straight.

I was not familiar with this case at all but even after reading a few pages of this fantastic book, I felt I knew all the facts at hand. Margaret McLaughlin was murdered on her way from her home in Carluke to Carluke Station. She was meant to be going to Glasgow to meet her sister.

Enter, Mr Muncie, a policeman with a dogged determination to get to the top of his game, regardless of how he got here. Employing what now, would be called confirmation bias, Mr Muncie was like a dog with a bone. Once he had an idea as to what he thought happened, he would purse this line and purse this line only. Matters such as no evidence would not stop him. It was because of this "determination" that Mr Muncie arrested a local man by the name of George Beattie. What ensued was a cacophony of bad police practice (no solicitors in the interviews, visits to the murder site, taking the accused to the murder site and telling him facts that he would then repeat back so as to ensure his arrest and printing photos of the murder site).. George Beattie was described as a "softie", often to making things up so as to get attention and to get people to talk to him.

George Beattie of course is convicted of the murder and spends 20 years serving time for a crime he didn't commit. In the mean time, the townsfolk of Carluke are realising that it could not have been Beattie who committed the crime and that the real murderer still walks among them.

David researches this case meticulously but with respect to the families of both George and Margaret, he does not interview either family as this would be pointless, it would only cause further hurt where he has more than enough information to go on.

David presents information with shows that Beattie could not have committed the murder and shows solid information as to who the actual murderer was.

This book reads as if it is is a well written fiction police mystery book but it is taken totally out of real life.

I really enjoyed this book, it angered me in many places (especially how the police behaved..but they are still behaving like this now, even with the added protection we civilians have with PACE) but I liked the style with which this was told. Factual, no room for opinion (A bugbear of mine is opinion presented as fact). and a sad story with finally an outcome that is the truth.

4 out of 5 stars

In 1973 a young woman Margaret McLaughlin was murdered in the Scottish town of Carluke. On her way to the station she was knifed to death close to her door. Although there were no witnesses the time of the crime could be placed in a window of a little over five minutes. It caused a huge stir and fear in the town and the Police were under a pressure to “sort” it. Within 5 days a local man, George Beattie, had been charged. In spite of his conviction and imprisonment (that lasted about 45 years until he was released on license) there was enduring local belief that he was innocent and other men were named as the perpetrator. Eminent criminologist, David Wilson was raised in the town, and his sisters still live there. He decided to use his professional skills to examine whether Beattie really was guilty. So he approached the crime as if it was an unsolved “cold case”, albeit not in an “official” capacity on behalf of the police which might have given him access to more official records. Nevertheless he came to some worrying conclusions, specifically that the wrong man had been convicted and this was a clear case of miscarriage of justice.
It should be said that this is a review of the paperback version of the book – a newly revised text that has been possible since the other probable suspect has since died. But that does not alter the clear messages of the book.
Wilson details the processes of a cold case investigation, something you may have seen in part on his previous television programmes. We are given close details of exactly how this one panned out, but critically was undertaken by somebody who knew the town at that time. The process meant that he needed to identify (and re-consider) which evidence still survives from the original investigation. Additionally he tried to find police witnesses who could throw further information on the written records available. He visited the scene of the murder, with this leading to clear understanding of strong likelihoods of who could, or could not, have committed the crime. But vitally he had access to local “knowledge” through his sisters and women who had known Margaret and the area. They could talk to other evidences that did not reach police consideration. Together these things pointed to one person, a close neighbour of Margaret, who was “disappeared” from the area shortly after the murder, probably to in-house psychiatric treatment.
An underlying theme of his review though was the worry of how the police identified George Beattie as the murderer so quickly. It would be fair to say he lived very close and was described locally as “slow”, but he had clear alibis for the time of the murder. Wilson places much of the blame on the ambitions of the experienced senior investigating officer who believed he had almost “psychic” abilities to recognise killers. Turf wars seem to have developed between this local police officer and the support investigators who came from external police forces. Their warnings of another possible suspect were therefore ignored. He raises the issue of “planting” information in the statements of a vulnerable (and legally unsupported) man. It is suggested that they also hid evidence of his innocence critical to the defence, while concentrating on a knife that they knew was not the murder weapon. But Beattie was still convicted and his subsequent appeals all failed. All of which raised further questions of whether the Scottish justice system has either the inclination, or capacity, to overturn clear miscarriages of justice. This speaks of course to a much deeper malaise.
But this is an historic case only just within the memory of most people. Wilson recognises he talks to a time when ordinary working people did not really trust the police and certainly did not see themselves as having the power to challenge their behaviours even if inappropriate. You might think that this is a thing of the past. But he develops a deeper theme of the book as he considers Carluke as a community then and now too. He questions whether with the changes to towns and the loss of close local community links – and key public resources and meeting places - whether another variation of the same could happen again.
Altogether this makes this an important read, albeit deeply uncomfortable. He clearly recognises that crime is not theoretical, there are real people involved here and in a situation that was highly distressing and life changing. But he moves beyond the simple to cover more than “crime” issues and these should be of wider consideration than just Scotland.

This was a really fascinating book about a murder in a small Scottish village which I was not familiar with.

Everything in this case was completely new to me so I found the whole book very interesting.

It was very well written. The structure was very easy to follow and read.

I appreciated how sensitively this book handled this case. At no point was it made to be more dramatic then it needed to be.

There was lots of mentions to theory and academic research to back up the claims made which were also interesting to read although I was familiar with the psychology studies mentioned.

Overall, I highly recommend this to any true crime lovers!

TW: murder, violence and mental illness discussions

Miscarriages of justice are ripe for crime literature, biographies, memoirs and case studies. We are all familiar with high-profile cases, such as Barry George’s conviction for the murder of Jill Dando, the infamous ‘Guildford four’ whose sentences were quashed, and then there’s Timothy Evans, the latter being a case we have studied via two books reviewed on this very website. So what is a miscarriage of justice?

The term 'miscarriage of justice' generally applies when a person is convicted of a crime but later their case is re-opened and their conviction is found to be 'unsafe'. But some cases are never reopened and a conviction stays, regardless of however long a prison term is served.

What happens if a case is deemed ‘unsafe’ though, but it’s never reopened? None of us would wish for crime to happen on our doorsteps but for Professor David Wilson, a historic case in his home of Carluke in Scotland, meant returning to his old haunts to investigate the 1973 murder of Margaret Mclaughlin and one in which an innocent man was jailed? Visiting this case for the very first time, I was fascinated to read about George Beattie and his wrongful murder conviction which sparked the writing of this book. Was it a miscarriage due to an incompetent policeman William Muncie – one of Carluke’s most famous sons – secretly capitalising on his reputation as ‘Scotland’s top detective’? The case for George Beattie’s innocence is compelling and in this book, David Wilson investigates all angles. Rather than being a vigilante, engaged in a witch hunt, or interested in listening to idle gossip, David Wilson reviews this unofficial cold case review as you would expect. If you've seen any of his true-crime TV shows or documentaries, you will know what I mean. Based in England, we had no idea of this case and having read the book, we feel duly informed.

The investigation itself is incredibly good, the only slight I would say is that you David Wilson could be biased in his assumption that George Beattie is innocent and does little in the way of investigating another possible local suspect. I won't spoil it, but it still makes for a fascinating read

Criminologist David Wilson returns to his home town of Carluke in Lanarkshire, to revisit a story of an unsolved murder that continues to haunt its past. It's a story that anyone growing up there had embedded in their DNA. Officially though, this isn't an 'unsolved murder'. A suspect was found guilty by a jury of his peers and so, as far as anyone official is concerned, this murder has been 'solved'. The 'murderer' has even now done his time and been released from prison. But Carluke has always known that a young man was wrongly convicted. This book is a search for the truth.

This is very informative and would be an ideal read for anyone with an interest in law and/or criminology. The way the author evaluates everything in the case and testing out his own theories with his own research makes this compelling and intriguing. The book is very well researched and a pleasure to read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

I was really impressed with this true crime based, non fiction account of David Wilson’s take on the murder of a local female that occurred in Scotland many years ago, and how he came to the conclusion that the wrong man had been wrongly convicted of this horrific crime.

This is very informative and would be an ideal read for anyone with an interest in law and/or criminology. The way Wilson evaluates everything in the case, and testing out his own theories with his own research makes this compelling and intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the way Wilson explained about criminal profiling, and although this is a very complex subject, his writing made this easy to comprehend.

This book is about David Wilson's (criminologist) return to his home town in Scotland. Carluke is a small town in Lanarkshire. In the 1970s, when the author was growing up there, there was a murder of a young woman. This case was "solved" quickly by the police working on it. However many of the town's residents have doubted the conviction both at the time and ever since. The case is of an age so that now the alleged murderer has been released after serving his sentence. The author returns to his home town to review the case and evidence available.

I do like some of the true crime books around and have read a few in recent years. I also like the investigations into apparent miscarriages of justice so this book was a good fit for me. The preface of this edition was very interesting. Since the first edition of the book was published the possible murderer has actually died and so can be named. Equally Police Scotland have had time to look at the author's evidence presented here and have expressed an "interest" in it.

The book starts with fairly extensive scene setting about Carluke generally. It is clear fairly early on that the man convicted of the crime seems an unlikely choice. In practice there was very little evidence against him but a top detective had decided quite early on that he was the person who did it. Bear in mind this takes place when the world was rather different to now and, for example, the suspect was never interviewed with an "appropriate adult" or a solicitor - something that would hopefully not happen now.

In practice this book ranges quite widely beyond this specific case. The author does give his views on areas that relate directly to the case - psychology generally for example - as well as other topic that seem at best peripheral. The changes in towns in Scotland and the UK generally over the period would be an example of this. He looks at the reasons why there was a lack of protest over the conviction at the time and this offers psychological/sociological approaches on the subject.

For me the best part of this book was the work on finding a better suspect for the crime than the person convicted of it. The processes of narrowing down the possible number of people and then investigating the remaining ones was very interesting. The fact that the author was able to talk to a policeman who had been on the case and himself interviewed someone who seemed a better fit was fascinating.

In the end this is an insightful investigation into a case that was almost certainly a miscarriage of justice which I found interesting. However that is what I was expecting from this really. What I also think I got was something of the personal story of a professional criminologist which ranged quite widely. For me there was less of a balanced view taken of some aspect too although that was the stated aim. Certainly good for true crime enthusiasts. 3.5/5

I have to be honest, as soon as I found out that the suspected true perpetrator of this crime was deceased, I lost interest almost straight away.
I kind of felt that the story would never be conclusive, therefore it felt pointless.
I wanted to finish the story so badly but alas I gave up just after half way.
This never feels fulfilling and I always hate to admit it, but this book could have been so much better.

This book is a very interesting dive into a miscarriage of justice that took place in Carluke, Scotland, in the 1970's.

The circumstances were relatively straightforward, a career detective who believed he had almost preternatural insight into the criminal mind took on a murder case, quickly decided that a local lad who had social issues was the killer and sought evidence to confirm his theory. The male in question was charged, found guilty and served many years in prison.

Wilson presents the circumstances and unpicks the logic that the community had (and still has) about the clear miscarriage of justice. He also uses his skills as a criminologist to theorise on the identity of the actual killer. The denouement of the book is a doorstep visit to the elderly man that Wilson believes to be the killer.

Whilst this is all well written, beautifully argued and presented in a comprehensive but digestible manner, there is still the nagging issues that Wilson himself flags up in that he has no access to official documents. Much of his research is open source and searching through archival newspapers and he admits there may be shortcomings in his findings.

Because of the book lags and feels sludgy in some places. Rather than concentrate on the miscarriage of justice and his hunt for the real killer, Wilson dips into sidebar issues of deprivation and the dissolution of community since the Thatcher years. Whilst a tract on de-industrialisation is never boring it feels slightly out of place in this book and these sections feel like padding.

Overall this is a good book but there is always the nagging doubt that, due to the lack of access to the official documents, Wilson has found an answer to a question he could not properly frame.

Still, a worthwhile read.

dnf.

i did not finish this book as the writing style really confused me. it reminded me of a thriller mixed with a contemporary and it really threw me through a loop.

i couldn’t focus on it.

overall the 10% of the book i read wasn’t bad, i just didn’t like the writing style.