The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream : The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer
Author(s): Dean Jobb
The chilling true-crime story of the Victorian era’s deadliest doctor
“When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals,” Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most puzzling murder investigations. Incredibly, at the time the words of the world’s most famous fictional detective appeared in print in the Strand Magazine, a real-life Canadian doctor was stalking and murdering women in London’s downtrodden Lambeth neighbourhood. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had been a suspect in the deaths of two women in Canada, and had killed as many as four people in Chicago before he arrived in London in 1891 and began using pills laced with strychnine to kill prostitutes. The Lambeth Poisoner, as he was dubbed in the press, became one of the most prolific serial killers in history.
In this fascinating book, Dean Jobb reveals how bungled investigations, corrupt officials and failed prosecutions allowed Cream to evade detection or freed him to kill, again and again. The first complete account of Dr. Cream’s crimes and his many victims explores how the stifling morality and hypocrisy of the Victorian era allowed this monster to poison vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help. It offers an inside account of Scotland Yard’s desperate search for a killer as brazen and efficient as Jack the Ripper.
Review(s):
"Superb . . . a real page-turner . . . I found this true crime book as good as, or better than, many other fictional accounts of similar manhunts."
"Vividly written . . . a splendidly atmospheric journey through the halls of Victorian vice, virtue and, above all, hypocrisy."
“Jobb’s excellent storytelling makes the book a pleasure to read.”
"A must for true crime fans."
"[An] enthralling real-life thriller . . . a true crime masterpiece that will easily sit alongside The Devil in the White City."
"A tour de force of storytelling . . . one of the best books I've read this year."
“A notorious murderer . . . and why it took so long to catch and convict him.”
"With intense research and propulsive writing Jobb brings the era and the story together in an immersive, compelling read."
“Jobb richly embellishes his grim central tale with carefully researched setting, detail, and social mores of the late Victorian era, elegantly contrasted with his eponymous fiend, Thomas Neill Cream . . . A vivid, engaging revival of a forgotten Victorian villain.”
“An exciting whodunit . . . Jobb also does the unusual in true crime: he describes in detail the lives of Cream’s victims. The scholarship he employed to tell this story is staggering.”
ISBN: 9781443453325