The invention of murder

how the Victorians revelled in death and detection and created modern crime

by

Hardcover, 556 pages

English language

Published July 23, 2013 by Thomas Dunne Books.

ISBN:
978-1-250-02487-9
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
865018428

View on OpenLibrary

(3 reviews)

In this exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders explores some of the most gripping cases that fascinated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction. She retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder--both famous and obscure--from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper to the tragedies of the murdered Marr family in London's East End; Burke and Hare and their bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; and Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fiancee around town by omnibus. With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know, "The Invention of Murder" is both a gripping tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable.

4 editions

reviewed The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders

Review of 'The Invention of Murder' on 'Storygraph'

3.3 Stars
While the narrator did a very good job in my opinion, this book just wasn't what I had expected it to be.
It gives, I'd say, a good overview of "Britain's most (in)famous murder cases of the Victorian era" and, to some extent, points out the worrying weakness of the justice system in respect to social ranks and also points out where cases and scientific reality have influenced fiction. But it does the latter to much less of an extent than I'd hoped for.

This isn't a bad audiobook. But it's more of a historic true crime podcast than a dive into the Victorian fixation with respectability and propriety and its fascination and desire for anything that wasn't that, really.

avatar for acaleyn

rated it

avatar for chaos_angel

rated it

Subjects

  • Murder
  • History

Places

  • Great Britain

Lists