The elderly man’s body had been horribly mutilated, shocking even the most hardened police officers. It is just one case presented in this encyclopedia of Australian murder, along with the case of the woman’s limbs found in Melbourne’s Yarra River, the case of the body dumped in a wheelie bin and the extraordinary situation in which police sift through ash to find fragments of human bone.

There are murders from the colonial era, starting with the convict who turned cannibal, right up to the modern era, including the case of the Melbourne man who used a cross-bow to kill his wife and daughter. There are famous murders from every decade, including the Pyjama Girl case, the Graeme Thorne kidnapping and the infamous Anita Cobby rape and murder.

This is a chronology of Australian murder, gruesome yet fascinating, featuring more than 200 cases, from axe killings to poison and even death by fire. There are bodies buried in back yards and even a case of a body largely dissolved by acid. Do not read alone in the dark.