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How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Thomas Dunne
August 2013
On Sale: July 23, 2013
560 pages
ISBN: 1250024870
EAN: 9781250024879
Kindle: B009LRWUFQ
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
In this fascinating exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodramaβeven into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the otherβthe founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell.
In thisΒ meticulously researched and engrossingΒ book, Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder, both famous and obscure: from Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fiancΓ©e around town by omnibus, to Burke and Hareβs bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, to the tragedy of the murdered Marr family in Londonβs East End.Β Through these stories of murderβfrom the brutal to the patheticβFlanders builds a rich and multi-faceted portrait of Victorian society.Β With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the utterly dangerous, The Invention of Murder is both a mesmerizing tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - August 26, 2013
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