The Invention of Murder

 The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death & Detection & Created Modern Crime- Judith Flanders

Thomas Dunne

Released: September 1, 2011

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Murder in the 19th century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous – transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama and opera – even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts.

In this meticulously researched and compelling book, Judith Flanders – author of ‘The Victorian House’ – retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder – both famous and obscure. From the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, to the tragedies of the murdered Marr family in London’s East End, Burke and Hare and their bodysnatching business in Edinburgh, and Greenacre who transported his dismembered fiancée around town by omnibus.

With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know, ‘The Invention of Murder’ is both a gripping tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable.

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Anyone interested in true crime, early crime, or how we as a people came to love watching crime drama on TV needs to read Judith Flanders' The Invention of Murder. 19th-century England saw the development of the police force as we know it (mostly) today, the beginning of the professional detective, the beginning of forensic science and crime analysis. In fiction, the detective story became a new genre, and took off in popularity- from Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to Arthur Conan Doyle. 

But these didn't develop in a vacuum- real life murders inspired many detective plots on page and stage, and science developed to keep up with the criminals. Judith Flanders explores many famous murder cases: from Burke and Hare to Constance Kent; the Marrs; Maria Marten; the Mannerings; poison panics; to, of course the most famous case of the century- Jack the Ripper. She doesn't just look at the cases themselves, but explores public reaction to them- what cases received the most news coverage? The most melodrama stage versions? Why puppet shows and wax images? How did the newspapers influence the Jack the Ripper case- possibly to the point where even today we can't tell fact from fiction? Flanders covers trials that make you want to lock up the judges and cases that make you glad you have nothing to do with 19th-century doctors.

People may have been committing murder since there were other people to kill, but it was the Victorians who made murder the entertainment industry we know it today. Judith Flanders' well written, well researched, and fascinating walk down the dark cobblestone lanes of London and the seemingly innocent village pathways will open your eyes to a whole new take on our modern views of crime and who you should really thank for the detective dramas on TV.

Phaedra

 

Phaedra-Laura Shepperson

Alcove Press/Penguin Random House

Release Date: January 10, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚

Trigger Warning: Rape, violence, suicide

Synopsis: Phaedra has been cast to the side all her life: daughter of an adulteress, sister of a monster, and now unwilling bride to the much-older, power-hungry Theseus. Young, naïve, and idealistic, she has accepted her lot in life, resigned to existing under the sinister weight of Theseus’s control and the constant watchful eye of her handsome stepson Hippolytus. 

When supposedly pious Hippolytus assaults her, Phaedra’s world is darkened in the face of untouchable, prideful power. In the face of injustice, Phaedra refuses to remain quiet any longer: such an awful truth demands to be brought to light. When Phaedra publicly accuses Hippolytus of rape, she sparks an overdue reckoning.
 
The men of Athens gather to determine the truth. Meanwhile, the women of the city, who have no vote, are gathering in the shadows. The women know truth is a slippery thing in the hands of men. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard. Until now.

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As a fan of Natalie Haynes, I enjoy giving mythological retellings a chance- seeing Greek, Norse, etc. stories from more feminist perspectives and bringing to life the women who were left in the silent shadows of the original stories has lots of potential. Phaedra is a story that had lots of potential, but never quite lived up to it for me. A lot of it was the writing style. Despite having multiple POVs- many, many characters tell this story- all of them sound exactly the same. There is virtually no way of differentiating any of the voices if you just closed your eyes and opened to a page. There is almost no character development among the characters, including the main women, Phaedra and Medea, although I had high hopes for Medea and personally thought some of her scenes were among the best in the book. Phaedra starts out as a young and naive princess who ends up married to Theseus and is in Athens really as a hostage instead of a wife. She is sure she is supposed to witness the gods' justice against the terrible wrongs Theseus has done on Crete. There is hatred in her early on, but that gets banked and we don't get to see it again until pretty much the end. The rest of the time she's . . . not much. You'd think she couldn't be as naive as she acts sometimes, that she'd figure out her status doesn't save her from the terrible things that happen in the Athenian palace. But she never seems to change, or to grow up from the girl we first meet.

When she accuses Hippolytus of rape and the statesman Trypho convinces her to bring it to trial, the modern reader sees plenty of the MeToo movement trying to rise up in ancient Athens. The problem being, of course, women have no voice in ancient Athens and the men who will do the voting are the men who are behaving just the same to the servants in the palace. Maybe Phaedra's status will mean something to them, maybe not. One of the most realistic and heartbreaking scenes in the book is between Phaedra and Theseus when he comes to ask her to stop the trial before his son can be judged. After all, why should his life be ruined because she suffered for a few minutes? It made me want to cry and be sick at the same time, because you know this was genuinely how this man understood the situation, and how generations since have and still do think.

By the end of the book we see the limited choices women in this world have: the vast majority, the 'night chorus', choose to silently accept the violence done to them and find small ways of avoiding the worst of it-working in pairs, putting sleeping draughts in men's wine, moving in shadows to avoid being seen. Medea has made choices others condemn her for, but she believes were right. What will Phaedra choose?

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Sleep No More

 Sleep No More (Lost Night Files 1)- Jayne Ann Krentz

Berkley Publishing

Release Date: January 3, 2023

Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead!

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Seven months ago, Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers were strangers, until their fateful stay at the Lucent Springs Hotel. An earthquake and a fire partially destroyed the hotel, but the women have no memory of their time there. Now close friends, the three women co-host a podcast called the Lost Night Files, where they investigate cold cases and hope to connect with others who may have had a similar experience to theirs—an experience that has somehow enhanced the psychic abilities already present in each woman.

After receiving a tip for their podcast, Pallas travels to the small college town of Carnelian, California, to explore an abandoned asylum. Shaken by the dark energy she feels in the building, she is rushing out when she’s stopped by a dark figure—who turns out to be the women's mysterious tipster.

Ambrose Drake is certain he’s a witness to a murder, but without a body, everyone thinks he’s having delusions caused by extreme sleep deprivation. But Ambrose is positive something terrible happened at the Carnelian Sleep Institute the night he was there. Unable to find proof on his own, he approaches Pallas for help, only for her to realize that Ambrose, too, has a lost night that he can’t remember—one that may be connected to Pallas. Pallas and Ambrose conduct their investigation using the podcast as a cover, and while the townsfolk are eager to share what they know, it turns out there are others who are not so happy about their questions—and someone is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out

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A new Jayne Ann Krentz series gives us mysteries on top of mysteries, friendship, and romance. Sleep No More starts things off by introducing us to three friends: Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers- none of whom had met before going to a job at the Lucent Springs Hotel. They left the hotel not only best friends, but without remembering what happened to them overnight- and all three now possessing enhanced psychic powers. Pallas can enter a waking trance state and draw what she sees in the energy, although it isn't always easy to translate what that means. The three friends now run a podcast to reach others who have lost nights with possible paranormal connections and Amrose Drake is sure he has a case for them: his own.

Ambrose has actually lost two nights, but on one of them he's pretty sure he saw a woman murdered. Or at least her body being carried off. No one will believe him without a body, but Pallas does and the two start investigating the town of Carnelian. Using the podcast as a cover they look into the Carnelian Sleep Institute, and plenty of locals are willing to share gossip on the odd doctor who runs it. The Institute may or may not be a legitimate sleep study clinic, but it certainly has somethings going on and may connect to not only Ambrose's lost nights but his own enhanced psychic powers. 

I really enjoyed Pallas (loved her name!) and Ambrose, partly for how completely out of their depth they were. They weren't like Krentz's other psychic characters who have been psychic all their lives and are used to using their gifts as just part of their normal range of talents. They may have had 'sensitivities' all their lives but only turned into psychics with full blown powers after their 'lost nights'. Having to adjust to a "new normal" has been difficult and they've been handling it as well as possible. Pallas had it a little easier because she had two friends with similar experiences she could talk to, Ambrose had to deal with everything alone and ended up questioning his sanity a lot along the way. That "psychic mystery" will be the overarching one to tie the three books together and I think Krentz set things up really well here. We got enough breadcrumbs to want more but no where near enough to figure out what was going on. The "individual mystery" felt personal since Ambrose needed to know the murders had happened as much for his sanity as anything else, so he had a really stake in it from the beginning. Otherwise it will feel familiar to Krentz fans: the small town, quirky characters, and slow burn romance over the developing partnership of Pallas and Ambrose. Krentz's trademark humor help the characters get through some harrowing situations and I enjoyed the book very much.

 I can't wait for the next one in the series!