The Sheffield Hanged: 1750-1864

While this book is certainly a 'local' book (published, written in, about and by A Sheffielder) its interest certainly lays beyond the searchers of the local history shelves.
While its focus is on Sheffield crime, the collected tales of misery, despair and sheer desperation ring true for anywhere in that era and suggest that maybe things haven't changed all that much after all.
The book also offers a fascinating insight into the procedure of law in the 18th and 19th Century and contains a wealth of little facts that are both intriguing and a tad macabre.