katie0528 's review for:

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

3.75

dark informative slow-paced

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This book is thick but it is not lacking! Flanders clearly knows her stuff. She dives into dozens of murder cases across 19th Century England, occasionally crossing the border into the United Kingdom at large. She does break down her book by topic (poor poisoners and middle class poisoners are 2 different chapters for example), rather than going chronologically by crime, which leads to a lot of (see pp. xx) notes or information getting spilt up of repeated. Still solid book for any fan of history and crime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Antisemitism