IF EVER you doubted Barnsley had a dark side then ‘Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Barnsley’ will leave you in little doubt.

The grisly catalogue of criminal history within the towns and villages in the borough dates back to Victorian times through to the present day.

The book ranges from stabbings and bludgeonings to suicides and acts of animal cruelty.

Readers might remember crimes including the Green Linnet murder in Wombwell in 1955 when 22-year-old Alec Wilkinson was found guilty of murdering his mother-in-law and was later hanged. Or the brutal rape and murder of teenage girl by convicted sex-offender Peter Joseph Wilson Pickering as she walked back to school at Wombwell in her lunch hour.

The book graphically recounts each, often horrific, crime with detailed accounts which include witness statements, police reports, coroners' findings and the court proceedings.

And many of the stories are enhanced by press cuttings and photographs from the time.

Author and local historian Geoffrey Howse grew up in Elsecar and Hoyland but now lives in London and has written several other true-crime titles.

While this book is not for the faint-hearted it is undisputedly a gripping read of Barnsley's more sinister past.

Published by Wharncliffe Books, priced £12.99.