Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England
The fatal poisoning of Charles Bravo in 1876 remains a great, unsolved  mystery. As James Ruddick shows in this engrossing account, there was no  shortage of suspects. Among them were Bravo's wife, Florence, who married the  young barrister in part to erase the taint of a recent sexual scandal; Jane Cox,  a servant caught spinning a web of lies about what happened the night Bravo  died; and James Gully, an esteemed doctor who was also once Florence's lover.  "In time, the case passed into the pantheon of English crime, a riddle that drew  the interest in speculation of every passing generation," writes Ruddick. It's  not hard to see why.Death at the Prioryis full of compelling  personalities and titillating revelations about what happened behind the closed  doors of Victorian England. Ruddick promises something more than a rehash of the  established facts: "I discovered the new evidence which has enabled me to expose  Charles Bravo's murderer." The author ultimately does not point his finger in a  surprising direction, though he has added substantial details to what's known  about the case. Fans of true-crime literature will enjoy this book, especially  if they're attracted to its historical setting.--John Miller--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.