The Wrong Man

It’s 1950s London. Beautiful Diana Calthrop, last seen breaking hearts in Laura Wilson’s The Innocent Spy as an icily daring MI5 operative in the finest couture, is looking a little tarnished, her famously catastrophic taste in men catching up at last. On the plus side, she has once again bumped into Inspector Ted Stratton, that sturdy, straightforward copper. Could he be her rescuer? First he’d have to rescue himself, and that’s a long shot: With his wife dead and his children distant, Stratton’s nursing his own depression like an old war wound. And while London never lacks for crime, there’s one crime in particular – one ghastly series of them – that Stratton just can’t shake. The Wrong Man is rooted in a real-life case, which has been dramatized several times, most successfully in the chilling 1971 film “10 Rillington Place,” starring Richard Attenborough and John Hurt. The book was originally published in the UK as A Capital Crime.