Book description
From the legendary Famous Trials series of real-life
courtroom dramas, two classic murder trials abridged and refreshed
as Penguin Specials for modern readers, selected and introduced
by Alex McBride, author of Defending the Guilty
Thomas Cream, erstwhile Sunday school teacher and serial poisoner,
has an unsettling air and wonky eye. He also happens to be a doctor,
which provides him with ample means and an ideal cover for his
murderous activities. His victims are vulnerable young women, whose
trust he gains with drinks and trips to the music hall, before
offering them pills or swigs from a medicine bottle. A few hours
later, they are dying in agony.
The Honourable Thomas Ley, meanwhile, has an even better disguise:
he's the former Justice Minister for New South Wales and a successful
businessman, albeit with a shady past. Rumours abound when a political
opponent disappears without trace and a business partner winds up at
the bottom of a cliff.
Neither killer can help themselves - and this, in the end, leads to
their downfall - and both defy our comprehension. Brilliantly
reconstructed here, their trials, in 1892 and 1947, reveal a deeply
sinister conundrum: by the time you've discovered the secrets in their
heart, it's inevitably much too late.
The legendary Famous Trials series set the benchmark
for historical crime writing with its accounts of the most notorious
and intriguing criminal trials of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Expertly reconstructed from court transcripts, these often
sensational narratives have gripped generations of readers since they
first appeared in 1941. In this digital edition, two of the very best
Famous Trials have been selected, introduced and further
abridged by criminal barrister and author Alex McBride to provide
modern readers with the most compelling versions yet of these
court-room classics.
Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. His book Defending
the Guilty: Truth and Lies in the Criminal Courtroom was
shortlisted for the 2010 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for
Non-Fiction and is available in Penguin. He has written for the
Guardian, Independent, Prospect and New
Statesman, and has contributed to various BBC programmes,
including From Our Own Correspondent.
'Expert, authoritative, hilarious - an insider's fearless account
of life at the criminal bar'Times Literary Supplement
Books of the Year on Defending the Guilty
