Story of a Murder

Hallie Rubenhold is the Number One Sunday Times bestselling and Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction prize-winning social historian whose expertise lies in revealing stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history. As well as The Covent Garden Ladies, Rubenhold''s works of non-fiction include the award-winning and Number One bestselling The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper and Lady Worsley''s Whim, dramatized by the BBC as ''The Scandalous Lady W''. Her latest work of non-fiction, Bad Women , the story of the disappeared wives and partner of Dr Crippen, is due to be published in 2022. She has also written two acclaimed novels Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson which are a feminist homage to the literary tropes of the Eighteenth Century . She lives in London with her husband. Meet her @HallieRubenhold>

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Hallie Rubenhold

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*BY THE AUTHOR OF MULTI-AWARDWINNING #1 *SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: THE FIVE, THE WOMEN KILLED BY JACK THE RIPPER

A fascinating feminist retelling of the historical true-crime story of infamous wife-murderer Dr Crippen in Edwardian England, brought to justice by an extraordinary group of musichall women

'Unbelievably addictive. Written with a unique combination of sleuthing, storytelling and compassion' LUCY WORSLEY
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No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story ...

On 1 February, 1910, vivacious musichall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies' Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.

They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle's husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.

Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen's typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve - was she really just 'an innocent young girl' in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?

And what is the story behind the death of Crippen's first wife, Charlotte, who died so quietly, never to be heard of again?

In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard - the women.

Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is forensically researched and multi-layered, offering the contemporary reader an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.

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PRE-ORDER: The gripping, groundbreaking historical true crime from the award-winning#1 Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FIVE

This is the story of a murder, not a murderer ...

Throughout the 20th century, the infamous 'Crippen murder' was told in such a way as to cast doubt on Crippen's guilt and to victim-blame his wife Cora, a musichall actress, for her own murder. It also astonishingly depicted Crippen's younger mistress Ethel as innocent of any involvement in the killing of her love rival.

Not so, says Rubenhold. In fact, Ethel got away with murder, and the same Edwardian beliefs about women that demonised his wife also blinded society to Ethel's guilt.

By telling the story through the women's eyes, we see clearly who this lying, deceitful, misogynistic criminal doctor was. He was not 'the mild-mannered murderer' as everyone from Raymond Chandler to Dorothy Sayers has suggested, but a dead-eyed, unrepentant killer.

STORY OF A MURDER is a grand experiment in subverting a famous history. With a galloping narrative at its centre, it explores the late Victorian and Edwardian era, class aspiration, the transatlantic world and the incredible period of social revolution for women.