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Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain

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The murder is gruesomely told as it was in the pamphlets of the time, and the investigation seems efficient and surprisingly similar to modern investigations, relying on physical clues, witnesses, background checks on suspects, etc. I’m sorry, I didn’t take a note of the specific years in my notes, but all of them are between 1500 and 1700.

This history unfolds the true stories of murder, criminal investigation, early forensic techniques, high court trials and so much more. I was so excited to see a true crime book relating cases from the Early Modern era and I certainly was not disappointed.What I especially like is that it seems to give a really interesting perspective not just on the crimes, but on what they mean within the larger society and how each influenced the other. If the women should miscarry or their baby not survive for long, they then ran the risk of being prosecuted for murder, even if there was little evidence. She has also written a chapter titled 'Notebooks, Play and Legal Education at Middle Temple' in Mapping the Early Modern Inns of Court: Law, Literature and Identity, edited by Jackie Watson and Emma Rhatigan, due to be published by Palgrave. I liked how they were more of a personal nature as some of the information came from peoples diaries. I see the audiobook is narrated by Jonathan Keeble – I’ve listened to a few of his narrations and I really like him!

Great and Horrible News explores the strange history of death and murder in early modern England, yet the stories within may appear shockingly familiar. This story is used as a basis to discuss women’s vulnerability to their masters, the horrific misogynistic laws around bastardy and infanticide, and early forensic ways of differentiating between stillbirth and infanticide. She takes us beyond Nathaniel's conviction to his time in Newgate, describing the appalling conditions in which prisoners were kept. It’s deficient in any meaningful analysis and the book feels more like a retelling of cases directly from the newspapers rather than presenting it from any specific point of view. Each one is like a short story in the way it's written, but backed up by remaining documentary evidence.Yes, I prefer nonfiction to avoid embellishment as much as possible, but although she did it once or twice here, on the whole I felt she justified her stories with original documentation. Adams uses each of the nine cases to highlight one or more aspects of the justice system and of the society of day. At once an intriguing true crime examination of historical crime and a sociological dive into Britain’s history, Adams does a stellar job of introducing a nonet of little-known crimes, running the gamut from suicide to child abuse to murder, that while not for the faint of heart, quickly become engrossing to read. A couple of them did get under my skin, but a few of them are really more interesting than upsetting.

There are definitely bits that are gruesome and bits that made me angry, but the way she puts it all into the context of the time is really well done. Although its a three hundred year difference, women were still being raped, impregnated, and thrown out by the masters of the house in the late 1800s, likely early 1900s too. The stories go into detail the law that was broken- at times by both the victim and the perpetrator- and raised the question of whether the actual law had, in part, helped cause the crime itself. I will enjoy reading about the historical and social contexts of these (real life) stories, and welcome that the author has used contemporaneous records as the source of her information. This sounds really fascinating – though I think I would have to read it in small doses, for the reasons other commenters have said.Engrossing account of various criminal cases, mostly throughout the 17th Century and mostly in England. Women who gave birth to even early term non-viable fetuses had to prove to the court that they had made a good faith effort to save their baby, otherwise it would be considered an intentional abortion. She argues that this period, 1500-1700, saw the beginnings of a secular, scientific approach to investigation, with increasing reliance on physical evidence, influenced by the cultural changes that accompanied the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. This was a great read, diving into the crimes or not-true crimes of early Britain, and some of the horrific laws that were enacted.

Yes, she managed to make me feel outraged a couple of times over the sheer unfairness of the justice system to women, and to poor people in general! That does sound very similar in style, though covering a later period – I may have to fit that one in sometime! For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password.As she takes us through his eventual confession, guilt and remorse, and his execution by public hanging, Adams shows how the public, again very similar to today, soon lost interest in John, the victim, and became fixated on Nathaniel, the murderer, even feeling sympathy for him as his remorse was reported in the news sheets. Blessin Adams presents an interesting range of historical true crime cases that shed a light on the judicial system of that time as well as how society as a whole worked. Adams doesn’t shy away from inserting her own modern hindsight and bias which I actually found refreshing - especially since at its core this book is all about reaction and opinion. And she shows that, while we may no longer gather to watch gruesome public executions, the public fascination with crime and punishment hasn’t altered much in the intervening centuries. Given that the stories cover 200 years, there’s plenty of scope for her to show us some of the changes that were happening, especially with regards to the change from religious to secular approaches to crime.

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