Victorian True Crime

What if everything you admired about the Victorians—was built on denial? Beneath the lace gloves and gaslight of 19th-century England lay a darker world—one of public executions and private abuses, imperial brutality and official denial, moral posturing and systemic hypocrisy. The Dark Side of the Victorian Era pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal the crimes, cover-ups, and contradictions that polite society worked hard to ignore. From child migrants sent overseas under the banner of Christian charity to the macabre spectacles of execution day, from Parliament’s strategic silences ...

Murder in the 19th century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodrama - even into puppet shows and performing-dog acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other - the 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.

BRITISH LEGAL HISTORY - The Fielding Brothers & Bow Street Runners - the early days and beginnings of policing in England with the infamous Fielding Brothers, the early Bow Street Runners, Robert Peel, Jerome Caminada, and other brutal crime fighters, covering highway robberies, gruesome murders, street crime and a host of dangerous attacks on society. A fascinating slice of legal history and nostalgia, featuring Victorian & Edwardian Manchester crime.

A new compilation of Bram Stoker’s cult vampire novels for the 100th anniversary of his death. This delightful new compilation of Bram Stoker's cult classics will be sure to satisfy any lover of vampire fiction, from Dracula to Twilight. All three novels were published after Dracula debuted in 1897. They flirt with vampirism, horror, and human folly in the best Gothic tradition - all attempts to duplicate Stoker's only success.

Early in the morning of Monday, July 8, 1895, 13-year-old Robert Coombes and his 12-year-old brother, Nattie, set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord's. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbors, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next 10 days, Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents' valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate.

Step back into the gaslit alleys of Victorian London, where a shadow known only as Jack the Ripper unleashed a reign of terror that haunts us to this day. In the autumn of 1888, the impoverished district of Whitechapel became the hunting ground for a phantom. A series of brutal, ritualistic murders of destitute women exposed the dark underbelly of the world's wealthiest empire and launched one of the most intense and frustrating manhunts in history. The killer was never caught, leaving behind a terrifying legend and a perfect, unsolved mystery. This meticulously researched book cuts through...

THE LEGEND REEXAMINED – THE CRIME THAT SHOCKED A NATION RETURNS TO THE STAND On the sweltering morning of August 4, 1892, a scream shattered the stillness of Fall River, Massachusetts. Within minutes, a quiet home on Second Street became the most infamous address in America. Inside lay Andrew and Abby Borden—bludgeoned, brutalized, and left to bleed on the polished floors of their own home. Standing in the doorway was their daughter, Lizzie Borden—calm, pale, and soon to be accused of the most sensational crime of the nineteenth century. Axed: The Untold Shocking True Story of Lizzie ...

The brutal murder of septuagenarian John Templeman shocks the little cottage community of Pocock's Fields. Rumours of illicit affairs, army desertion and violent confrontations spread as the community waits to see who will be sent to trial. An extraordinary power struggle develops between the Coroner, leading the Inquest, and the Police Magistrate, leading the Inquiry. As the case reaches a crisis point, just how far will the authorities be willing to go to bring the perpetrator to justice?

Peel back the headlines and enter the heart of Australia’s most chilling dinner-table crime—unravel the Erin Patterson mushroom murders in gripping detail, even if you think you know the whole story. What really happened behind closed doors in Leongatha, Australia? Which clues did the world’s eyes—and police—miss? How did tragedy at a Saturday family lunch spiral into an international obsession and a landmark legal battle? Fatal Invitation is your definitive, fact-driven guide through the tangled web of betrayal, forensic intrigue, and courtroom drama that shook a nation—and the...

Fall River, Massachusetts, August 1892. A city sweltering under a suffocating heatwave holds its breath, waiting for something to break. Inside the Borden home on Second Street, the air is thick with more than just heat. It’s a place of oppressive silence, resentful family dynamics, and secrets locked away like the house’s many doors. When Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, are discovered brutally murdered with a hatchet, the tight-knit community is shattered. Suspicion falls on the unlikeliest of suspects: Andrew’s younger daughter, Lizzie. A quiet, church-going spinster of thirty-two...

The shocking murders carried out by an unknown serial killer in London's East End during the autumn of 1888, haunted the public imagination at the time and have continued to exert a baleful influence ever since. But what was it like to live through those terrifying weeks? This audiobook looks at the crimes of Jack the Ripper through the eyes of Londoners, including the rumors that swept through the capital city, the alarms, the riots, the persecutions, the suspicions, and the sheer naked terror of the awful autumn when a killer stalked the streets.

“A tour de force of storytelling.” —Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Gamache series “Jobb’s excellent storytelling makes the book a pleasure to read.” —The New York Times Book Review ”When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of...

Lady Antonia discovers a body at the opening of the Great Exhibition, in the presence of Queen Victoria, no less. The newly married Lord and Lady Danvers put all such unpleasantness behind them, though, as they sail off in his aerostat for a secluded honeymoon in Scotland. Until the shades of grave robbers a generation earlier come back to haunt them.

In late-Victorian London, Minnie Pheby became a scandal: a young woman accused of burglary at a time when breaking into houses was considered a man’s crime. Branded by the press as the “lady burglar”, she was hunted, punished, and turned into a cautionary tale. Catwoman of West London reconstructs her story from surviving records — and reveals what her crimes exposed about class, gender, and the fragile promise of the Victorian home.

Now a Netflix Film The first installment in the beloved and New York Times bestselling series from Richard Osman, also author of We Solve Murders Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In...

When poisoned chocolates spread terror through Victorian Brighton, suspicion fell on no one — until it fell on Christiana Edmunds. Respectable, intelligent, and outwardly composed, Edmunds defied every expectation of a criminal. Her case forced Victorian England to confront uncomfortable questions about obsession, insanity, and female violence. The Chocolate Poisoner is a gripping true crime history of a woman who reasoned carefully, acted deliberately, and was silenced for the rest of her life.

She called herself a countess. Europe believed her. In the grand hotels of the Belle Époque, a woman known as the Comtesse de Monteil drifted through the Riviera’s glittering corridors—charming the elite, earning their trust, and leaving behind empty jewel cases and unanswered questions. Police traced her across Brussels, London, Nice, and beyond, but her disguise held until one night in 1908, when she was finally caught in the act. The Comtesse of Crime is a glam-noir true crime story of deception, luxury, and the dangerous power of belonging—told through verified contemporary ...

Lights! Camera! Action! The latest book in the Big Book Series takes us behind the curtain to uncover the stories that became some of the greatest films of the silver screen. Among these are Robert Louis Stevenson's horrifying tale that was later turned into the iconic movie The Body Snatcher, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff; and "Cyclists' Raid", the short story that formed the basis for the legendary Brando film The Wild One.

The year is 1888 and a brutal serial killer stalks the streets of London. For the first time, the press realise if it bleeds it leads... Using press reports from the time The Ripper Reports reveals the crimes of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders as events unfolded. If you already know the Ripper crimes, this book reveals the fallacies, misinformation and conspiracies initially reported as events unfolded and England’s first serial killer was revealed to the world. If you are new to Jack the Ripper you can experience the rollercoaster of news revelations as the horrified ...

Breathless and painstakingly researched, this is a stunning debut mystery in which Sherlock Holmes unmasks Jack the Ripper. Lyndsay Faye perfectly captures all the color and syntax of Conan Doyle’s distinctive nineteenth-century London.