Search results for ""Author Linda Stratmann""

The year is 1880. In West London, a dedicated doctor has set up a waiting mortuary on the borders of Kensal Green Cemetery, where corpses are left to decompose before burial to reassure clients that no one can be buried alive. When he collapses and dies on the same night that one of his most reliable employees disappears, Frances Doughty, a young sleuth with a reputation for solving knotty cases, is engaged to find the missing man, but nothing is as it seems. In this, her third case, Frances Doughty must rely on her wit, courage and determination - as well as some loyal friends - to solve the case. Suspicions of blackmail, fraud and murder lead to a gruesome exhumation in the catacombs, with shocking results. The third book in the popular Frances Doughty Mystery series.

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London1882: In this, her most demanding case, Frances Doughty goes undercover for Her Majesty’s Government to investigate some disturbing information regarding the apparently innocuous Bayswater Bicycle Club. Before long, she is plunged into a murky world of deadly secrets, a suspicious disappearance and a brutal murder, and the Lady Detective is forced to do the unthinkable to avoid becoming the next victim. With a new and exciting future before her, is there anything the dauntless Miss Doughty cannot do?

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London 1882: When a wealthy philanthropist disappears from a locked and guarded room, Frances Doughty is reluctantly drawn into a case that tears the veil of mystery from her own past. Can London's very own Lady Detective solve this sinister new case before a murderer catches up with her and she becomes the next victim?

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Murder by poison alarmed, enthralled, and in many ways encapsulated the Victorian age. Linda Stratmann’s dark and splendid social history reveals the nineteenth century as a gruesome battleground where poisoners went head-to-head with authorities who strove to detect poisons, control their availability, and bring the guilty to justice. She corrects many misconceptions about particular poisons and documents how the evolution of issues such as marital rights and the legal protection of children impacted poisonings. Combining archival research with a novelist’s eye, Stratmann charts the era’s inexorable rise of poison cases both shocking and sad.

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Frances Doughty is a young sleuth on her first professional case, trying to discover who distributed dangerously feminist pamphlets to the girls of the Bayswater Academy for the Education of Young Ladies. Armed with only her wits, courage and determination, she finds that even the most respectable denizens of Bayswater have something to hide, and what begins as a simple task soon becomes a case of murder. As election fever erupts and the formidable ladies of the Bayswater Women's Suffrage Society swing into action, Frances’ enquiries expose lies, more murders and a long-concealed scandal, and she makes a powerful new friend. The second book in the popular Frances Doughty Mystery series.

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When a customer of William Doughty's chemist shop dies of strychnine poisoning after drinking medicine he dispensed, William is blamed, and the family faces ruin. William's daughter, nineteen year old Frances, determines to redeem her ailing father's reputation and save the business. She soon becomes convinced that the death was murder, but unable to convince the police, she turns detective. Armed only with her wits, courage and determination, and aided by some unconventional new friends, Frances uncovers a startling deception and solves a ten year old murder. There will be more deaths, and a secret in her own family will be revealed before the killer is unmasked, and Frances will find that her life has changed forever. The first book in the popular Frances Doughty Mystery series.

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This compendium brings together thirty-three murderous tales — one from each of the capital’s boroughs — that not only shocked the City but made headline news across the country. Throughout its history the great urban sprawl of Greater London has been home to some of the most shocking murders in England, many of which have made legal history. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind these heinous crimes. They include George Chapman, who was hanged in 1903 for poisoning three women, and whom is widely suspected of having been the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper; lovers Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, executed for stabbing to death Thompson’s husband Percy in 1922; and Donald Hume, who was found not guilty of the murder of wealthy businessman Stanley Setty in 1949, but later confessed to killing him, chopping up his body and disposing of it by aeroplane. Linda Stratmann also reveals previously unpublished information that sheds a whole new light on the infamous Craig and Bentley case. This carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to those interested in the history of Greater London’s history and true-crime fans alike.

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The sudden death of overweight 49-year-old Thomas Whibley sparks off an acrimonious furore in Bayswater, and sparks fly between rival diet doctors, vegetarians and the extremist Pure Food Society. Young sleuth Frances Doughty is engaged to discover the author of anonymous libels, when a former colleague of Whibley’s, Hubert Sweetman, who has served fourteen years in prison for a violent robbery he claims he did not commit, asks her to trace his estranged family. Before she can start, however, the police arrive and arrest her client for the murder of his wife. There will be more murders and a vicious attack on Frances before she finally resolves a number of knotty questions. Is Hubert Sweetman really innocent? Where are his missing children? And who wielded the poisoned pen? The fourth book in the popular Frances Doughty Mystery series.

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Middlesex Murders brings together numerous murderous tales, some of which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Middlesex. They include the murder of John Draper, whose body was found in a well at Enfield Chase in 1816; 15-year-old John Brill, found beaten to death in a wood in 1837 after giving evidence against two poachers; and Claire Paul, killed with an axe at her home in Ruislip in 1938. Linda Stratmann’s carefully researched and enthralling text includes much previously unpublished information and will appeal to everyone interested in the shady side of Middlesex’s history.

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LONDON 1881: Panic reigns in Bayswater as a ruthless murderer prowls the foggy streets of the nation's capital. Residents live in fear, rumours and accusations abound, and vigilante groups patrol by night. It is not, of course, a suitable investigation for a lady detective, but when a friend falls victim to the killer's knife, Frances Doughty is drawn into this sinister new case. Myth and reality collide in another thrilling mystery that will stretch Frances' powers of deduction - and her courage - to the limit.

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The Illustrated Police News cost just a penny, providing an affordable illustrated roundup of `all the startling events of the week' from its first issue published on 20th February 1864. Promising to educate the people with fantastic features such as `BURGLARIES OF THE WEEK' and its bountiful, often outlandish, illustrations, the paper was also a-perhaps unexpected- champion of social change. With crime historian Linda Stratmann as guide, the articles and special reports of the newspaper provide a fascinating view into the reading tastes and daily lives of its readership throughout the decades. Led by the newspaper's bombastic imagery sourced from the Library's extensive archive, this new book revels in the infamy and social significance behind the exuberant headlines of this extraordinary periodical.

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The Marquess of Queensberry is as famous for his role in the downfall of one of our greatest literary geniuses as he was for helping establish the rules for modern-day boxing. The trial and two-year imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, lover of Queensberry’s son, Lord Alfred Douglas, remains one of literary history’s great tragedies. However, Linda Stratmann's riveting biography of the Marquess paints a far more complex picture by drawing on new sources and unpublished letters. Throughout his life, Queensberry was emotionally damaged by a series of tragedies, and the events of the Wilde affair—told for the first time from the Marquess’s perspective—were directly linked to Queensberry’s personal crises. Through the retelling of pivotal events from Queensberry’s life—the death of his brother on the Matterhorn and his fruitless search for the body; the suicides of his father, brother, and eldest son—the book reveals a well-meaning man often stricken with a grief he found hard to express, who deserves our compassion.

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