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Review
'A riveting and beautifully written book. A high point in the annals of murder, for every necessary ingredient - callousness, ruthlessness, mystery, recklessness, boarding houses, detection, a chase, money, sex and even a bit of glamour - is present. Miss Robins has made a thumping good book out of it'.
'In Jane Robins' excellent The Magnificent Spilsbury - part-whodunit thriller, part-social history, part-biography - there's delight in the detail.. This is a pacy page-turner underpinned by meticulous primary source research. Frankly, it's a treat.. as satisfying as a fine thriller'.
(The Scotsman )'Robins's description of the murders and of Smith's persuasive personality is gripping. The Magnificent Spilsbury teems with promise'.
(Sunday Times )'As well as being a gripping, pacy account of a gruesome murder trial, this book is also a compelling piece of social history. Robins. . . shines a light on a dark age for women'.
'Not just a compelling read but it also an intriguing slice of social history'.
(The Express )Here Jane Robins gives us that story in all its tingling horror
(Sunday Telegraph )Jane Robins's account of this classic murder story is riveting
(Mail on Sunday )Product Description
Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty are three women with one thing in common. They are spinsters and are desperate to marry. Each woman meets a smooth-talking stranger who promises her a better life. She falls under his spell, and becomes his wife. But marriage soon turns into a terrifying experience.
The nation turned to a young forensic pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, to explain how it was that young women were suddenly expiring in their baths. This was the age of science. In fiction, Sherlock Holmes applied a scientific mind to solving crimes. In real-life, would Spilsbury be as infallible as the 'great detective'?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The enthralling story of the desperate and dateless of Edwardian England. There was a huge over-supply of women in the early years of the century and "the country...was practically awash with girls who couldn't find a partner at dances". This was the sad fate of Bessie Munday, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty, all unremarkable women,spinsters rather past their prime for the marriage market and drifting through their uneventful lives desperate to be the bride and not the bridesmaid.
And so when they met a smooth-talking good-looking conman with charisma who offered them marriage, without hesitation or consulting with their families they jumped at the chance. As victims of scams in every place and every time their happiness was short-lived,- just long enough to make a will or insurance policy in favour of their new husband and take a bath.
And when the police investigation began the women kept coming out of the closet, including two survivors, one wife in Canada and Edith Pegler "the wife he always returned to".
You couldn't find a better murder story in fiction especially as this one comes complete with a latter-day Sherlock Holmes in the form of the forensic pathologist Bernard Spilsbury and a sleuthing Rumpole of a lawyer.
The details of the murders and career of the Bernard Spilsbury are interspersed with background detail creating a vivid picture of the preoccupations and daily life of the period, such as the evidence offered that in the case of an unplumbed-in bath and a small boiler it would take twelve journeys upstairs with a bucket to fill it halfway up and twenty journeys to fill it three quarters full. No wonder baths were only an option for the wealthy!
It's a pity not more is known of the arch conman,the much married George Smith:he seemed to have a grudge against those women of a higher class than himself(he murdered these but spared his wives of a lower class)and was said to have hypnotised the Bishop of Croydon. Even his provenance and background is hazy and would repay more research,as would that of his victims who remain one-dimensional in this account.
A timeless tale of the unscrupulous preying on the desperate. Except that in 1910 they found each other via the pages of the Matrimonial Times rather than the Internet.
I throughly enjoyed it.
And so when they met a smooth-talking good-looking conman with charisma who offered them marriage, without hesitation or consulting with their families they jumped at the chance. As victims of scams in every place and every time their happiness was short-lived,- just long enough to make a will or insurance policy in favour of their new husband and take a bath.
And when the police investigation began the women kept coming out of the closet, including two survivors, one wife in Canada and Edith Pegler "the wife he always returned to".
You couldn't find a better murder story in fiction especially as this one comes complete with a latter-day Sherlock Holmes in the form of the forensic pathologist Bernard Spilsbury and a sleuthing Rumpole of a lawyer.
The details of the murders and career of the Bernard Spilsbury are interspersed with background detail creating a vivid picture of the preoccupations and daily life of the period, such as the evidence offered that in the case of an unplumbed-in bath and a small boiler it would take twelve journeys upstairs with a bucket to fill it halfway up and twenty journeys to fill it three quarters full. No wonder baths were only an option for the wealthy!
It's a pity not more is known of the arch conman,the much married George Smith:he seemed to have a grudge against those women of a higher class than himself(he murdered these but spared his wives of a lower class)and was said to have hypnotised the Bishop of Croydon. Even his provenance and background is hazy and would repay more research,as would that of his victims who remain one-dimensional in this account.
A timeless tale of the unscrupulous preying on the desperate. Except that in 1910 they found each other via the pages of the Matrimonial Times rather than the Internet.
I throughly enjoyed it.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
To maintain suspense when recounting true crime requires considerable skill, and Jane Robins's account of the career and capture of one of the most famous murderers of the last century is as fast-paced as any whodunnit. The narrative cuts deftly from the modest backgrounds of the female victims, to the pursuit by the dogged detective, to the dramatic staging of the forensic proofs and finally to the gripping courtroom battle between Spilsbury and Marshall Hall - respectively the leading pathologist and criminal advocate of the era.
But this is more than a simple page-turner: Robins's background as a serious historian is evident in her use of primary sources, including Spilsbury's original case cards and contemporary newspaper accounts, to illuminate not only who and how, but also why. By building up a detailed picture of the insecure position of single women at the outbreak of WW1, Robins enables us to comprehend how the female desire for the status of matrimony could be so cynically exploited. Her scholarship is deployed with a light touch, using quotations from correspondence and court papers to delineate the characters of the victims and to demonstrate how George Joseph Smith was able to manipulate the gullible until the bitter end.
But this is more than a simple page-turner: Robins's background as a serious historian is evident in her use of primary sources, including Spilsbury's original case cards and contemporary newspaper accounts, to illuminate not only who and how, but also why. By building up a detailed picture of the insecure position of single women at the outbreak of WW1, Robins enables us to comprehend how the female desire for the status of matrimony could be so cynically exploited. Her scholarship is deployed with a light touch, using quotations from correspondence and court papers to delineate the characters of the victims and to demonstrate how George Joseph Smith was able to manipulate the gullible until the bitter end.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This exceptional treatment of a notorious early 20th century English murder combines the page-turning interest of a well-written detective story with serious and wide ranging exposition of not just the scientific and legal issues in the case, but also of the social and historical context in which the all the protagonists lived.
Ms. Robins has used a wide range of materials with accuracy and insight to illustrate with well-chosen and striking examples not just the process by which George Smith was brought to justice but also the entire social milieu from which his victims were drawn as well as telling insights into the tensions in the English legal system in the early 20th century between the dramatic oratorical style of the Victorian era, personified by Smith's defence counsel Marshal Hall and the emergent scientific approach of the prosecution team whose pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury cemented his reputation with this case.
The author concludes with interesting reflections on later challenges to Spilsbury's reputation, both during his lifetime as he became increasingly dogmatic in realms perhaps beyond his own expertise and also what present scientific opinion would have to say about his evidence in this case.
This text wears its considerable scholarship lightly, and is a gripping read, but is well-footnoted (and generously illustrated)for those anxious to explore further. My one (pedantic perhaps) complaint is that in England witnesses in court do not "take the stand", they "enter the witness box".
Ms. Robins has used a wide range of materials with accuracy and insight to illustrate with well-chosen and striking examples not just the process by which George Smith was brought to justice but also the entire social milieu from which his victims were drawn as well as telling insights into the tensions in the English legal system in the early 20th century between the dramatic oratorical style of the Victorian era, personified by Smith's defence counsel Marshal Hall and the emergent scientific approach of the prosecution team whose pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury cemented his reputation with this case.
The author concludes with interesting reflections on later challenges to Spilsbury's reputation, both during his lifetime as he became increasingly dogmatic in realms perhaps beyond his own expertise and also what present scientific opinion would have to say about his evidence in this case.
This text wears its considerable scholarship lightly, and is a gripping read, but is well-footnoted (and generously illustrated)for those anxious to explore further. My one (pedantic perhaps) complaint is that in England witnesses in court do not "take the stand", they "enter the witness box".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Magnificent retelling
I disagree with reviewers who felt there was too much padding in this book. I felt that what the author was doing was putting the crimes in context. Read more
Published 10 days ago by KAW
In depth social history of the early twentieth century
This is an exceptionally well written book by Jane Robins which covers not only the notorious murders of three young women by George Smith in the early part of the twentieth... Read more
Published 8 months ago by C. Bannister
Magnificent...Jane Robbins
Found this book fascinating, full of detail
and full of research. It was more than a
case study- the sordid events were put
in full context as we learn about... Read more
and full of research. It was more than a
case study- the sordid events were put
in full context as we learn about... Read more
Published 12 months ago by David Mckeown
EXCELLENT ALL ROUND DETECTIVE STORY/SOCIAL HISTORY
I enjoyed this book immensly. It had all the good attributes of a detective story, a social commentary on the mores of the early 20th century, especially about the role and mind of... Read more
Published 12 months ago by bibliophile
Well written, too long, nothing new.
The book is well written and reasonably interesting. However, like many of the modern interpretations of Victorian and Edwardian murders, there's lots of social commentary; my view... Read more
Published 12 months ago by A reader
Much duller than it should have been
The premise of this book - an examination into the mysterious deaths of lonely women in their bathtubs as the science of pathology was gaining ground and respectability - sounds... Read more
Published 12 months ago by P. Baxter
Magnificent Spilsbury
The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath Amazing. Full of facts but very easy to read. Once started very hard to put down
Published 13 months ago by Mrs. Roberta L. How
Fascinating Read
The infamous 'Brides in the Bath' murders of Edwardian England, gripped the country and brought to its attention one Bernard Spilsbury; Home Office pathologist and the 'father of... Read more
Published 14 months ago by J. Ward
"A Recommended Case Review"
George Joseph Smith under various names/variations of his name, was an evil and greedy man who hit upon a winning formula to enrich himself. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Bob Marlowe
those were the days ...
.... when the British went in for sensational murders - quite a few more were to follow between the wars. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Stephen
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