One of many books that has been sat on my Kindle for years without ever actually being read - I probably bought it on a 99p deal because it sounded interesting, but I just prefer physical books! Basically it does what it says on the tin; at a galloping pace, you travel the world and the centuries and read about various mishaps and mayhem that occurred before, during and after various methods of execution.

This sounds like an odd thing to say, but when I see this type of book I either expect it to be a) incredibly detailed, with perhaps each chapter being dedicated to a specific case to study from beginning to end, and/or b) written in such a way as to find the levity in such dark moments (kind of like Horrible Histories for grown ups). This was neither. The book is divided into types of punishment i.e. Guillotine, hanging, burning etc. The author starts by giving an overview of how the punishment should work, before going on to tell you about various examples of mistakes that were made when that type of punishment was employed. The problem is that there are only so many different ways these things can go wrong, and so it very quickly gets quite repetitive. And because there is only a brief consideration of the crime and backstory, you don't really learn anything. It's very much 'oh, another person who took three goes with the axe' kind of mentality... and on that note the author didn't even include one of the most interesting blunders in my opinion, Margaret Pole!

The author does try to go for comedy in a couple of places, but only succeeds in a few quite terrible dad jokes and puns. It completely misses the mark and so just feels a bit crass and uncomfortable. 

It may be that the ebook formatting doesn't help, but I also found it an odd editorial decision to include short examples between each of the longer stories. The trouble is, as stated above the book is sorted by execution type, but these quick additions are just scattergun, sometimes being in completely the wrong section. There's no logical reason for this, and in some cases it's just quotes from the condemned or the death warrant, so not even really something that makes sense to be included.

That being said, there are a few interesting examples in here, mainly those where things went so badly wrong the condemned managed to walk away. And I have a huge amount of respect for the author as a Beefeater at the Tower - that must be an absolutely incredible job to have. So he definitely knows his stuff! I just wish it came through better on the page.

As an aside, the end of this book includes an extract from another one on a similar subject written by the same author. My only concern is that there are a few passages from that example that seem to have been lifted pretty much word for word from this one (or vice versa, not sure what order they were published in). 

Overall, I'd say the idea in theory was great, but the execution was a bit of a blunder...