![]() Through the intervention of his Quaker fellows, he avoided death and was sentenced, instead, to transportation to Australia for 14 years. In 1841, however, he was arrested and charged with possessing and forging banknotes. Son of a Norwich shopkeeper, he grew up taunted for his red hair and his squint, but he used his intelligence and, eventually, his Quaker credentials as an honest and trustworthy citizen, to become a successful commercial traveller in London. ![]() The role played by the recently invented electric telegraph in identifying John Tawell as the possible murderer of Sara Hart frames the story, but it is the subsequent police investigation and the amazingly eventful life of John Tawell that is the subject of the book. ![]() They are described from those reports, too, but Baxter interprets their emotions and brings them to life. As a "historical detective," she has conducted assiduous research but, as she tells us in her endnote, she wanted to offer readers "the immediacy of fiction without fictionalising the narrative." So, her characters speak the words they spoke in the newspaper and police reports about the murder of Sarah Hart on New Year's Day 1845. And it is all true.Īuthor, Carol Baxter, is a historian. ![]() There is a mystery to solve, there is plenty of drama, suspense, passion, gossip and sex. This is a history book for those who like a good story. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |