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Start giftingStory of a Murder
Brought to you by Penguin.
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.
© Hallie Rubenhold 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Hallie Rubenhold is the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling and Baillie Gifford prize-winning author of The Five, the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. A renowned social historian whose expertise lies in revealing stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history, she is the author of The Covent Garden Ladies which was the inspiration behind BBC TV's 'Harlots'. Her biographical work, Lady Worsley's Whim, was dramatized by the BBC as 'The Scandalous Lady W'. Her most recent work of non-fiction, Story of a Murder, the wives, the mistress and Dr Crippen, will be published in March 2025. She has also written two acclaimed novels Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson which give voice to the women written out by eighteenth-century literature. She lives in London with her husband. Meet her @HallieRubenhold