Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder - Softcover

Colquhoun, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349123594 ISBN 13: 9780349123592

Publisher: Abacus, 2012

Synopsis

In July 1864, Thomas Briggs was travelling home after visiting his niece and her husband for dinner. He entered a First Class carriage on the 9.45pm Hackney service of the North London railway. At Hackney, two bank clerks entered the carriage and discovered blood in the seat cushions; also on the floor, windows and sides of the carriage. A bloodstained hat was found on the seat along with a broken link from a watch chain.

The race to identify the killer and catch him as he flees on a boat to America was eagerly followed by citizens both sides of the Atlantic. Kate Colquhoun tells a gripping tale of a crime that shocked the nation.

About this title

Review:

(A) thrilling book, which reads at times like a good Victorian novel... an utterly compelling did-he-do-it (Sunday Times)

Deploying her skill as a historian, Colquhoun turns a single curious murder case into a fascinatingly quirky portrait of the underside of mid-Victorian London. I found it unputdownable (Daily Telegraph)

Kate Colquhoun is a fine, robust writer who makes the most of its every twist and turn (Mail on Sunday)

With a storyteller's instinct for colour and suspense Kate Colquhoun has brilliantly recreated the five-month period from Thomas Briggs' death to Muller's execution (Daily Express)

Kate Colquhoun's irreproachable unpicking of the case is meticulous, patient, thorough and measured (Independent)

Book Description:

The fascinating story of the first ever railway murder

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0349123594
• ISBN 13: 9780349123592
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352