I had the chance to review Lucy Worsley’s The Art of the English Murder for the October 26 New York Times. This is the third book I’ve read in the last few years that deals with the development of Britain’s professional police force and the way that went hand in hand with the development of crime fiction. Judith Flanders The Invention of Murder and Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher both went into the subject with more scholarly depth, but all three books are a fascinating take on crime, detection, and crime fiction. The Times has wonderful fact checkers and editors; publishing has pared so much away from its support staff that I’d forgotten how wonderful it was to have a good editor save me from hideous mistakes.