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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The authors make a sound, solid case for accusing one person, 11 Jun 1999
By A Customer
Jean Graham Hall and Gordon D. Smith collaborated originally in No. 1 of the "Then and Now" Series which dealt with the law which existed at the time of the trial of Bywaters and Thompson, and the subsequent changes in both law and social attitudes, containing the outcome of the trial with the probable result today. The second in the series concerns the Croydon Arsenic Mystery - a truly extraordinary story of several members of a family who were murdered but for which no one was prosecuted. The authors (one a retired Circuit Judge, and the other a Chartered Surveyor) study all the circumstances surrounding the murders, and reach a conclusion which the reader may or may not agree - but in any event it was a truly memorable murder case for aficionados of the genre; indeed Agatha Christie devotees would have regarded the whole series of murders as being a little too far-fetched for real life. In the quiet streets of the borough of Croydon, in what may now seem to be the halcyon days of the pre-Second World War period, a respectable, middle-class family experienced a remorseless series of apparently motiveless murders, with the resultant horrors of exhumation, forensic examinations and inquests. The book is written with all the expertise that one would expect - with understanding for the parties involved, and for the underlying law. Although the authors reach a conclusion as to the likely guilt of a prosecuted person, the Publishers in all fairness could not. It is probable that, even in Croydon the poisonings are no longer remembered except by those with a special interest in the case, and its disinternment in this book and its comparison with how it would be handled today, provide a very necessary reminder of how the law has moved. Of one thing, however, the Publishers are convinced - the book is a damned good read.
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