Alibi

Alan Jackaman will be a guest speaker at Crimecon UK in Birmingham in April 2026. See https://www.crimecon.co.uk/ for more details.

A gripping account of crime detection in 1980s London centring on an horrific real-life double murder.

Alibi is a gripping account of crime detection in 1980s London in which dedicated CID officers work side-by-side with the flotsam and jetsam of the Metropolitan Police. Recalling a time when being posted to Clapham served as 'punishment' for a range of disciplinary offences, Alibi describes how crimes were solved by a rag bag of officers, some more concerned with a lunchtime pint than policing tasks.

The book centres on an horrific real-life double murder in which a suspect was charged but acquitted at the Old Bailey. It examines the inner workings of international drug dealing and the extraordinary deception and subterfuge of those involved. The result is a dark time capsule into which the author injects the expertise and powers of observation of his earlier true crime writings.

Set against a fictional backdrop, Alibi looks beneath the surface of policing at a time when questionable activities by outcast detectives - never destined for Scotland Yard's elite Flying Squad - somehow 'got results.' Except in the Price-Tetrault case.

With a Foreword by Rae Price, son of victim Brian Price, who still campaigns for justice 40 years on.

The first whole book on a largely ignored case, Alibi challenges the reader to answer the question, What really happened on that horrific summer night in South London four decades ago?