ORIGINAL TITLE: A Very British Murder, 2013, BBC Books
GENRE: Nonfiction/Crime
MY GRADE: B-
SYNOPSIS: Murder -- a dark, shameful deed, the last resort of the desperate or a vile tool of the greedy. And a very strange, very English obsession. But where did this fixation develop? And what does it tell us about ourselves?
In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early nineteenth century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern England, murder entered our national psyche, and it's been a part of us ever since.
The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians.
In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early nineteenth century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern England, murder entered our national psyche, and it's been a part of us ever since.
The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians.
MY THOUGHTS: The synopsis is misleading. It makes it sound like the book is about nonfiction crimes but most of it is about crime fiction and for that, I'm disappointed. Starting in part 2 and there's 3 parts, the author is just talking about and giving away plots of mostly well known fiction crime novels, mostly by British authors, written before the 1970s, but mostly before the 1950s. I had to skip over quite a few pages because she was spoiling four or five books I have but haven't read yet. Unfortunately she continued to do that throughout chapter 3 too. I'd have preferred the fiction novels be saved for their own chapter and not mixed in with nonfiction crimes. Aside from that, I did like hearing about the fiction books mentioned that I haven't read and didn't plan to read.
There's a section in the middle of 16 pages that are in full-color of the things she's talking about, such as items in a museum. There's a few black and white photos scattered throughout of real life murderers that she's talking about, which is nice to see.
I found the book to be interesting for the most part (I absolutely love the cover of this hardcover edition) and I enjoyed, as I always do, learning of true murders I hadn't known about that took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries and will look into some of them, and some of the books mentioned.
You can see images from inside the book here.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment