Agatha Christie's True Crime Inspirations (15 page)

DR ANDREW NORMAN

When Agatha Christie, the so-called ‘Queen of Crime’, disappeared from her home in Sunningdale in Berkshire for eleven days on 3 December 1926, the whole nation held its breath. From a painstaking reconstruction of Agatha’s movements and behaviour during those eleven days, Dr Andrew Norman is able to shed new light on what, in many ways, has remained a baffling mystery. Only now, fifty years after Agatha’s death, is it possible to explain fully her behaviour during that troubled time.

978 0 7524 4288 4

THOMAS TOUGHILL

The Ripper Code
is a fascinating combination of literary and conventional detective work, which is as original as it is enthralling. After showing that the official Ripper files contain little of forensic interest, the author approaches the subject of the killer’s identity from an entirely different angle – the life and works of Oscar Wilde. The author also claims that Jack the Ripper was placed in an asylum after the last murder in order to keep secret a royal indiscretion.

978 0 7524 5276 0

MIKE HOLGATE

Within these pages are accounts of Robert James Lees, the Ilfracombe spiritualist who claimed to have unmasked Jack the Ripper; Herbert Rowse Armstrong, the former Newton Abbot solicitor who remains the only member of his profession to be executed for murder; and Oscar Wilde, whose downfall was initiated by an incriminating letter sent from Babbacombe. With more than sixty illustrations, this chilling book is bound to captivate anyone interested in Devon’s dark history.

978 0 7524 4504 5

WILLIAM A. GUY, DAVID FERRIER & WILLIAM R. SMITH

The first edition of William A. Guy’s
Principles of Forensic Medicine
was published at the start of Victoria’s reign; the final edition, from which these selections derive, was published towards the end, just a few years after the Whitechapel horrors had pushed the emerging science to the forefront of the public’s consciousness. With original woodcuts, case studies and notes on identifying the corpse and walking the crime scene,
Victorian CSI
will fascinate lovers of crime fiction and of true crime alike.

978 0 7524 5513 6