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Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England
 
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Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England (Paperback)

by James Ruddick (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books; New edition edition (12 Sep 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1903809444
  • ISBN-13: 978-1903809440
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 154,727 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Who killed Charles Bravo? This is the mystery at the centre of James Ruddick's mesmerising Death at the Priory, a detailed and vivid recreation of the case that followed barrister Charles Bravo's death. In 1876, an attractive widow, Florence Ricardo, accepted a marriage proposal from the successful barrister. Four months after their marriage, Bravo collapsed at home, and proceeded to die a slow and pain-filled death, despite the attendance of several of London's top physicians. The doctors concurred: Bravo had been poisoned, and a police investigation soon cast a net of suspicion over everyone at the Priory, his London home.

We are presented, thriller-fashion, with all the principal suspects: Mrs Cox, Bravo's long-serving companion; stableman George Griffiths (who nursed a grudge against the dead man); Dr James Gully, who had been the lover of Bravo's wife Florence; and, of course, the enigmatic figure of the beautiful Florence herself. Ruddick has tackled great cases of the past before, with Lord Lucan: What Really Happened, and he is expert at re-sifting the evidence and presenting to the reader highly plausible solutions to previously unsolved mysteries. Here, we are given a fascinating picture of Victorian society, with all its repression and damped-down sexuality, but the really compelling aspect of Ruddick's book is the new evidence he draws on to demonstrate for the first time who really killed Charles Bravo. Conan Doyle never wrote a more intriguing mystery. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Review

A gripping historical thriller about the murder of a brutal Victorian husband and a vivid portrait of a woman, a marriage and a society.
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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars gripping from the first page, 10 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England (Hardcover)
I started this book late one evening intending to read just the first chapter. At 2am I was still turning the pages. What a read! Ruddick brilliantly weaves all sorts of issues about Victorian society and its dark repressions into the text of a great thriller. Its a crime story that grabs you by the neck and stays with you long after you've finished it.

Toria Maybey

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars AN EDGE-OF-YOUR -SEAT THRILLER, 9 Dec 2002
As murder mysteries go, this has to be one of the best ever written. Its an old, old story, re-told through the years by some of the big names in crime writing, including Agatha Christie. And its not hard to see why: when the odious Charles Bravo collapsed with poisoned intestines one night in 1876 the list of suspects for his murder was one of the most compelling ever assembled. Was it Charles's wife, the beautiful and sexy Florence? Was it their housekeeper, the secretive Mrs Cox? Was it Florence's ex-lover, the high society doctor, James Gully? Was it the coachman, disgruntled at being sacked by Bravo? Or was it actually the victim himself, committing suicide for some indiscernible reason? The riddle has fascinated writers and armchair detectives for more than a century, and produced a plethora of books and TV programmes. Ruddick's book is divided into two halves: a riveting re-telling of the old story, with all its twists and turns, enlivened by some amusing social commentary. Then a gripping modern investigation to track down the real killer. Ruddick has gone to a lot of trouble, too: travelling to the west indies, Australia, the US, in search of the families of those originally suspected of murder. And his travels have not been fruitless. In Jamaica he uncovers a highly revealing document which effectively solves this murder mystery. At the end of the book the missing pieces of the jigsaw are slotted neatly into place and we have a final, convincing denouement.
Ruddick writes well, too. His style echoes the best of modern crime writing coupled with a journalist's sense of unremitting persistence. He brings his characters and their strange situations to life in a way that puts his book up amongst the writing of Elizabeth George and PD James.
The definitive answer to a fascinating riddle; and a literary classic to boot.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant account of a marriage and a murder, 27 Sep 2002
By A Customer
I read this book after reading an excellent review of it by PD James. It is the story of Florence Bravo, a beautiful young woman living in Victorian England, very wealthy, who led an amazing life. She married twice, had an affair with a high society doctor, an abortion, and was ruined by scandal. Along the way her second husband - young Charles - was poisoned with antimony. The police never established who in the household had done the deed - the wife, the housekeeper, the ex-lover. But now author James Ruddick takes up the story where the police left off and flies around the world tracing the descendants of those involved. By doing so, and uncovering old secrets, he shows exactly who killed Charles Bravo and why. The book is a brilliant historical drama and also a tour de force of modern investigative journalism..
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars in flagrante delicto
James Ruddick has researched this Victorian crime case with commendable zeal, going back to the original records and depositions in great detail. Read more
Published 1 month ago by E. Shaw

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hidden Underbelly of Victorian Society
I've actually read this three times since I bought it. The characters are drawn particularly well, and the reader does feel a sense of involvement with the protagonist. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sheena Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars How did Bravo die ?
I found this book to be extremely well-written and impressive. The author's efforts to trace surviving members of the Campbell and Ricardo families being admirable and thorough... Read more
Published 20 months ago by McNaughton

5.0 out of 5 stars Century old mystery convincingly solved
The death of Charles Bravo, a promising young barrister, five months after his marriage to feisty Florence Campbell, has baffled both the police at the time, in 1876, and... Read more
Published on 21 April 2004 by Nick Lewis

5.0 out of 5 stars COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN
This is a fascinating and intriguing story, brilliantly told. Who killed Charles Bravo? That question has perplexed people for more than a hundred years, with scores of books... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrilling exposition of the Victorian elite
Death at the Priory sets out to solve the most impenetrable murder mystery of the 19th Century: the poisoning of Charles Bravo. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2002

1.0 out of 5 stars Glorified magazine article fails to prove its solution
"Death at the Priory" sounds interesting. Enough so that I bought it. But there's less here than meets the eye, which is very little to begin with. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars book of the year
I have read all five books on the Bravo murder mystery and found this one to be far and away the best. It was fascinating, disturbing, gripping and sad. Read more
Published on 25 Dec 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars Ruddick earns only a muted "Bravo!"
Ruddick's concluding chapter and posited solution for the Bravo mystery are convincing, yet I found the book, overall, disappointing. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2001 by Tom Hughes

5.0 out of 5 stars Be
Beautifully and gracefully written, coupled with a definate edge make this an intoxicating read. I could not put the book down! Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2001

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