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

The underlying story behind Death at the Priory has everything that a good mystery needs -- sex, love, and murder. The first part of this book definitely draws you in. However, toward the middle to end, the focus shifts from the story of the murder to a first person account of the author's investigation and details about how he ultimately "solved" the murder! It ruined the whole book for me, and the author comes off sounding quite pompous! It is as if the book is no longer about the intriguing murder, but suddenly about the author! Particularly if you are a fan of these sorts of books and may have listened to The Suspicions of Mr. Wicher first, this book will disappoint.

The story of this century-old unsolved murder serves a framework (jumping off point) for an examination of the status (or lack thereof) of British Victorian women, though members of that sex elsewhere weren't faring all that much better.
Ruddick has managed to put his extensive research together as an interesting conjecture as to how Charles Bravo met his end. I suspect the audio version might prove more interesting than the print book; the narrator conveys the author's enthusiasm well.

This story, about a murder that occurred in England more than 100 years ago, was well told and interesting. The author reviewed the case material from the original investigation and then looked for additional information related to the families involved and their descendants. The case had been investigated by Scotland Yard and written about by such crime-writing stars as Agatha Christie. James Ruddick presents a credible case for his "choice" of murderer.

I selected this title because my book club had decided to read it. I'm glad they did! As a lover of good detective fiction, this one met my expectations for being both a good story and a well-written narrative. And the bonus: it wasn't fiction!

The narrator did a fine job with the audio book.

Death, adultry and the sex lives of the victorians - wicked fun.

This was a wonderful non-fiction murder mystery. Great book to take along when you are going on a long walk.