The Inheritor's Powder

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

Sandra Hempel

This actually turned out to be a nice follow up read to my last book The Invention of Murder. It is an in depth coverage of the poisoning murder of George Bodle, with a few touches on other arsenic based murders (or alleged murders, doubt is cast on several convictions based on the limitations of both science and court proceedings at the time). I found the writing to be nicely engaging, without being pedantic. The author makes sure there is context for the lives and motives of people involved, such as by noting relative salaries for servants, and other notes about life in this time frame, without resorting to rambling footnotes or extraneous examples. She explains the methods and theories used by scientists who were beginning to develop what would later on become forensic science, as well as the errors and shortcomings of their methods.

Overall, I found this a relatively quick, yet engaging read. She details the lives and character of the people involved in such a way that you get a distinct feel for them, and can sympathize or vilify as the case my be, for each of them. If you enjoy true crime, detective work, or even just a bit of salacious history, I would definitely recommend this one.

The Invention of Murder

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

Judith Flanders

I really, really wanted to like this book. Obscure Victorian crimes? Timelines from early murders in 1811 all the way through the infamous Jack the Ripper slayings in 1888, with cases from the poison panics, and assorted other high profile murders of the time? All this is the type of obscure, macabre details I enjoy.

Unfortunately, the writing style comes across as rambling and disjointed, with footnotes and side tracks that interrupt the flow of the tales. Although the title implies this will be a look into the development of detection and the creation of modern crime, there is little on the development of police work, forensics, and other techniques developed during this period. Instead there is a great deal of rambling accounts of how these crimes found their way into Penny Dreadfuls, Broadsides, traveling plays, and exhibits of artifacts from the murder scenes, plus research into the naming of race horses and racing dogs after famous criminals at the time.

Overall, the impression is of a salacious recounting of assorted events gleaned from the newspapers, broadsides and court records of the era, with little tying them together. Even then, the events are recounted in a manner that comes across more as a textbook than a publication intended for the general public. The usage of direct quotes of the time, as well as providing illustrations of cartoons and courtroom and execution scenes is helpful for context, but still doesn't keep the overall text from coming across as quite dry.

As I said, I really wanted to like this book, and despite my feelings about its shortcomings, I still would recommend it for someone who had a deep interest in Victorian crime, if nothing else to give a jumping off point for compiling a list of cases and sources (the annotations and bibliography are nicely extensive if one wanted to pursue additional academic resources for the cases brought up). Also, the case histories, dry though they might be, provide some familiarity with the (in)famous names of the era, several cases of which I have had pop up in true crime podcasts and books that have followed my reading of this book.