The detective is a familiar figures in British history, from the Victorian truncheon-bearing bobby to the undercover sleuth of the twenty-first century. But there is much in the history of our investigative police force that remains in the dark. Using detective training manuals, Home Office enquiries, Parliamentary papers and unpublished memoirs of reitred detectives, Stephen Wade looks at famous cases such as the Ripper murders and the beginnings of Special Branch and Detective Branch at Scotland Yard. His fascinating history covers aspects of crime history that have not yet been written about, including the career of Jaim 'the Penman' Saward, a notorious forger, the detectives who were corrupted during the hunt for him and teh infamous Trial of the Detectives of 1876 - a massive corruption trial involving six Scotland Yard detectives. It was this that led to the creation of a professional Scotland Yard as we know it today. Appealing to criminologists, social and crime historians and, most significantly, readers of crime fiction and true crime, this history is a vital part of our crime heritage.