Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

Kate Summerscale · 384 pages

In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land, Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard. Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable--that someone within the family was

The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women

Lisa Perrin · 208 pages

The Bell Tower: The Case of Jack the Ripper Finally Solved... in San Francisco

Robert Graysmith · 552 pages

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century

Harold Schechter · 494 pages

From renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter, whom The Boston Book Review hails as "America's principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers," comes the riveting exploration of a notorious, sensational New York City murder in the 1890s, the fascinating forensic science of an earlier age, and the explosively dramatic trial that became a tabloid sensation at the turn of the century

The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science

Sandra Hempel · 278 pages

Explores how an infamous murder case led to the birth of modern toxicology.

A Dreadful Murder: The Mysterious Death of Caroline Luard

Minette Walters

The Complete History of Jack the Ripper

Philip Sugden · 541 pages

Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder

Kate Colquhoun · 339 pages

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper

Bruce Robinson · 850 pages

A reinterpretation of the case of Jack the Ripper focuses on the "why" instead of the "who," theorizing that the residents of London society's finest homes created him as an outlet for their own hidden violent and taboo proclivities.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Simon Winchester · 265 pages

The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime

Judith Flanders · 556 pages

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 Lon

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed

Patricia Cornwell · 387 pages

"Between August and November 1888, at least seven women were murdered in London's Whitechapel area. The gruesome nature of their deaths caused panic and fear in the East End for months, and gave rise to the sobriquet that was to become shorthand for a serial killer - Jack the Ripper.". "For over a hundred years the murders have remained among the world's greatest unsolved crimes, and a wealth o

Thunderstruck

Erik Larson · 480 pages

A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world's "great hush." In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men--Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication--whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy

Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force's Most Infamous Murder Cases

Simon Read · 480 pages

The Complete Jack the Ripper

Donald Rumbelow · 305 pages

Discover the theories and facts surrounding the Whitechapel murders in David Rumbelow's The Complete Jack the Ripper... It is 1888 in London's Whitechapel district, where one by one a group of prostitutes are brutally murdered. Opium smoking Inspector Fred Abberline is called upon to investigate these horrific murders and through his visions track down and trap Jack the Ripper. David Rumbelow's ca

The Italian Boy: A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s London

Sarah Wise · 387 pages

Describes the 1831 murder of a young vagrant and the sale of his body to a London medical college, a case that led to the arrest of his killers, "resurrection men" who acted to satisfy the demand for fresh cadavers for the study of human anatomy.

The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief

Ben Macintyre · 320 pages

The Victorian era's most infamous thief, Adam Worth was the original Napoleon of crime. Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal. And steal he did. Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society. He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole. His most celebrat

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

Deborah Blum · 327 pages

The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner

The Diary of Jack the Ripper

Shirley Harrison · 333 pages

Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters, and the Seattle Cyanide Murders

Gregg Olsen · 551 pages

Stella Maudine Nickell's small-time world was one of big-time dreams. In 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175,000,plus insurance payoff,until authorities discovered Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide. In an attempt to cover her tracks, Stella did the unconscionable. She saw to it that a stranger woul

The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse

Piu Marie Eatwell · 350 pages

"One of the most notorious and bizarre mysteries of the Edwardian age, for readers who loved The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. At the close of the Victorian era, as now, privacy was power. The extraordinarily wealthy 5th Duke of Portland had a mania for it, hiding in his horsedrawn carriage and creating tunnels between buildings to avoid being seen. So when, in 1897, an elderly widow asked the court

Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer's Deadly Medicine

M. William Phelps · 477 pages

'Perfect Poison' tells the shocking true story of a female serial killer who abused her respected position as a nurse to administer death to her trusting patients.

Everything She Ever Wanted

Ann Rule · 555 pages

The true story of a Southern belle gone wrong presents the shocking story of a beautiful woman who tried to murder members of her own family to get what she wanted. By the author of Small Sacrifices. 100,000 first printing.

Poisoned Love

Caitlin Rother · 480 pages

Case seen on Inside Edition, Good Morning America, and 48 Hours Accident, Suicide... Or Murder?On November 6, 2000, paramedics answered a call to find Kristin Rossum, 24, sobbing. Her husband, Greg de Villers, wasn't breathing and she claimed he had overdosed on drugs after learning she was leaving him. But family and friends who knew of Greg's distaste for drugs weren't buying Kristin's story—par