Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Story of a Murder:
A story finally fully told.
Quick synopsis:
The story of murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen, his victims, and maybe an accomplice.
Fact for Non-History People:
Between 1891 and 1901, the number of female clerks in England and Wales went from 18,947 to 57,736.
Fact for History Nerds:
A governess required no formal training. Probably why so many of them became villains in stories.
My Take on Story of a Murder:
I don’t think we, as a book loving society, give enough credit to historical true crime authors. Investigating crime is hard enough when it just happened. Trying to untangle names, aliases, and relationships and then presenting it to the reader in an understandable way is a tall task. When I saw that Hallie Rubenhold (who wrote The Five, one of the best historical true crime books of all time and yes, I said what I said) had a new book coming out, I was instantly excited. I was right to be!
Story of a Murder is about Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, his wife Belle Elmore, and the “other” woman Ethel Le Neve. A good number of the names I just mentioned are not their born names, but it just goes to show the links Rubenhold has to go to make this entire story readable. Crippen was constantly moving around, changing titles, names, and, well, wives. His record in marriages would make even Henry VIII blush.
If you are looking for Rubenhold to turn the genre on its head once again like she did in The Five, then you will be disappointed. However, you shouldn’t be. Rubenhold instead takes a notorious case and tells it completely. Each person is given the respect of a full backstory even if they don’t deserve it. The first half of the book feels almost like a dual or even triple biography and then of course Belle disappears. What happened? Well, exactly what you expect. This isn’t about whodunit. It is about understanding who these people are and how it happened. This narrative is thorough and readable. I highly recommend it.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Dutton Books.)
Verdict:
A must read. Buy it here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.