As lively and readable as a crime novel." - The Times (London) "Reading this account of a real-life crime in 1845 is an experience close to time travel. Expertly told.a captivating accomplishment in nonfiction" - Shelf Awareness "In an echo of Magwitch, the convicted criminal who returned from Australia as a rich man in Great Expectations, so John Tawell, a Quaker and convicted forger transported to Sydney where he made a fortune as a retail pharmacist, returned to England where he was a social outcast. Baxter's accounts of the telegraph's technology, the prevailing cultural climate regarding murder and poisonings, contemporary forensic methods and Tawell's personal history are all worthy of an engrossing thriller. Baxter does a stellar job of integrating details about the nascent forensic science of the time, questions about the role of expert witnesses in jury trials, and the insatiable public hunger for salacious details about the case." - Publishers Weekly "Australian historian Carol Baxter melds true crime and science in the gripping The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable. "Fans of Erik Larson's true-crime thrillers will be pleased by this gripping account.With a novelist's flair for drama, using details that were painstakingly extracted from the historical record, Australian popular historian Baxter recreates the life of suspect John Tawell.
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