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siobhanward's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Considering that this is a book about a murder that ~scandalized~ Harvard, I kind of hoped it would be more scandalous, a la HH Holmes. But no, this was just a murder of a well-liked doctor and benefactor with a pretty cut and dry court case.
Some of the details were interesting but there was a lot of pages devoted to various attendees of Harvard in the 1840s... Not something I'm deeply interested in.
Was this the best true crime book I've read? No, but having a good portion of the book devoted to the court case was interesting and is not something you always see in these books, so that was an interesting change at least!
tansybradshaw's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Interesting case that I had never heard of.
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
5.0
A real life crime of the century brought to grisly exquisite life!
Take your reading scalpel to this one and get dissecting!
Take your reading scalpel to this one and get dissecting!
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
3.0
In the winter of 1849, a wealthy landlord goes missing without a trace until the janitor at the medical college of Harvard makes a grisly discovery.
While I liked this book overall, I found it spent too much time setting the scene. It took quite a long time to even get to the murder and the number of characters was high. I don’t know that bookending it with stories about Charles dickens was really necessary considering he had little to do with the story.
An entertaining read if admittedly bogged down in unnecessary details
While I liked this book overall, I found it spent too much time setting the scene. It took quite a long time to even get to the murder and the number of characters was high. I don’t know that bookending it with stories about Charles dickens was really necessary considering he had little to do with the story.
An entertaining read if admittedly bogged down in unnecessary details
joabroda's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
I cannot remember how this book got on my shelf, but I am awfully glad it did!
Not only a murder mystery, but a great history of a role in the of the American legal system. This is the very first time certain forensic evidence was used (I won't say what, you need to read the book!), and for the history of Chief Justice's (Robert Gould Shaw) instructions to the jury regarding reasonable doubt. "Webster Charge" became the norm across the country and it was not until 2015 that the state of Massachusetts Supreme Court decided that it should be updated.
Well researched and well written, enough so that I really was not sure the accused was guilty or not guilty until the very end of the book.
Recommended not only for non-fiction readers but those of you who love a mystery.
Not only a murder mystery, but a great history of a role in the of the American legal system. This is the very first time certain forensic evidence was used (I won't say what, you need to read the book!), and for the history of Chief Justice's (Robert Gould Shaw) instructions to the jury regarding reasonable doubt. "Webster Charge" became the norm across the country and it was not until 2015 that the state of Massachusetts Supreme Court decided that it should be updated.
Well researched and well written, enough so that I really was not sure the accused was guilty or not guilty until the very end of the book.
Recommended not only for non-fiction readers but those of you who love a mystery.
bookclubdropout's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating and very readable history of a murder in Harvard Medical School in 1849. Gruesome the amount of dead bodies they had lying around! This is a brilliant page-turner.
nora_nevermore's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very good and well written book with a lot of interesting information. The book does not just discuss the murder case in 1849 but also discusses Harvard at that time, the lives of those teaching and studying there, the medical field at that time and the issues that were going on with getting cadavers (such as grave robbing and murder cases). It is honestly a great historical view of that time period and pulls it all together with the case of a murdered professor and the ghastly story around it.
chelsea_not_chels's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of this book is extremely intriguing and the persons involved are all fascinating. However, something about the writing here just didn't fully engage me, and I found myself putting it down for long stretches of time. Some of this might be the fabricated dialogue; it's made clear what is fabricated because it's in italics, versus actually quotes which are in, well, quotes. The fabrications just felt strange to me and pretty unnecessary; you can write a very good nonfiction book without fabricating or speculating on dialogue between the "characters" you're working with. But the whole scenario is still a weird historical murder mystery, so that's interesting.