Why a Booktrail?
1920s: The Notting Hill Mystery has been widely described as the first detective novel.
The Notting Hill Mystery (British Library Crime Classics)
What you need to know before your trail
Baron R- has recently insured his wife for a large and some would say suspicious sum of money. When the wife is then found dead, apparently having taking poison, things start to look very suspicious indeed. It’s an insurance investigator who goes to investigate rather than a police officer and so things take a decidedly more distinct turn.
As Ralph starts to dig deeper, the more disturbing the evidence he finds. Evidence of wrong doing, of suspicious goings on, not to mention mesmerism and murder.
Obviously, doubts begin to arise when she does, in fact, die shortly after, apparently by taking poison while sleepwalking. Our investigator is sent to make sense of the event, and through diligent sleuthing, uncovers a bizarre swirl of soap-opera family drama, mesmerism, and, of course, murder. Quite a number of murders, actually.
Travel Guide
Death by poison
A painful slow death as imagine actually buying poison for this reason and then realising that the person will drink it and die almost immediately. A very horrific way to go.
This novel is a series of testimonies given by those who either knew or where witness to the death of three people.
“I submit for your consideration the facts of the case as they appear in the depositions of the several parties from whom my information has been obtained.”
Memerism
The novel evokes the struggle to put together a case – not a police case but one made up of reports, diary entries, letters as well as interviews as Henderson tries to build case against the Baron. He’s got an eye for detail
And the things he will find? This is a word in which wealth, jealousy and poison mix with mesmerism. Mesmerism was a form of hypnosis which was highly suspect but also widely practiced in Victorian times. Victimization by men in the 19th century was also a wide spread problem at the time an so the two together could prove deadly.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Notting Hill Mystery (British Library Crime Classics)
Author/Guide: Charles Warren Adams Destination: London Departure Time:1920s
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