The Invention of Murder

Blurb

HardCover. Pub Date :2013-07-23 Pages: 576 Language: English Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Murder in the nineteenth century was rare.But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous. with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels. broadsides. ballads . opera. and melodrama-even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts.Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel. each imitating the other-the founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickenss Inspector Bucket. the first fictional police detective. who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and. ultimately. even PDJames and Patricia Cornwell.In this meticulously researched and engrossing book. Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder. both famous and obscure: from Greenacre. who transported his dismembered fiance around town by omnibus. to Burke and Hares bodys...