Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England - Softcover

Ruddick, James.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903809975 ISBN 13: 9781903809976

Publisher: P/B, 2001

Synopsis

1st edition 1st printing trade paperback, fine, true crime In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

About this title

Review

Who killed Charles Bravo? This is the mystery at the centre of James Ruddick's mesmerising Death at the Priory, a detailed and vivid recreation of the case that followed barrister Charles Bravo's death. In 1876, an attractive widow, Florence Ricardo, accepted a marriage proposal from the successful barrister. Four months after their marriage, Bravo collapsed at home, and proceeded to die a slow and pain-filled death, despite the attendance of several of London's top physicians. The doctors concurred: Bravo had been poisoned, and a police investigation soon cast a net of suspicion over everyone at the Priory, his London home.

We are presented, thriller-fashion, with all the principal suspects: Mrs Cox, Bravo's long-serving companion; stableman George Griffiths (who nursed a grudge against the dead man); Dr James Gully, who had been the lover of Bravo's wife Florence; and, of course, the enigmatic figure of the beautiful Florence herself. Ruddick has tackled great cases of the past before, with Lord Lucan: What Really Happened, and he is expert at re-sifting the evidence and presenting to the reader highly plausible solutions to previously unsolved mysteries. Here, we are given a fascinating picture of Victorian society, with all its repression and damped-down sexuality, but the really compelling aspect of Ruddick's book is the new evidence he draws on to demonstrate for the first time who really killed Charles Bravo. Conan Doyle never wrote a more intriguing mystery. --Barry Forshaw

Review

Nearly everything about the case is extraordinary... but James Ruddick provides a convincing explanation. -- P.D. James, Sunday Times, October 10th, 2001

No one has come up with a solution. Until now. Ruddick is extraordinarily good... -- The New Statesman, October 8th, 2001

One of London's most compelling murder cases, unsolved - until now... -- Evening Standard, 2 October 2001

Ruddick's book is violently successful... he advances the best explanation of what actually happened that you're ever likely to read. -- Independent on Sunday, 30th September 2001

Ruddick's reconstruction is excellent.. meticulously researched.. a triumphant feat of detective work and a billiant evocation of the times. -- Daily Mail, September 7th, 2001

Edition details

• Publisher: P/B
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1903809975
• ISBN 13: 9781903809976
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 209