Jill Hutchinson's Reviews > Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian Tale of Deception, Adultery, and Arsenic

Being a true history lover, I have no idea why I suddenly take off on these true crime book tangents but, nevertheless, I've done it again. In this story, set in the Victorian age when women seemed to be killing off their husbands with poison at an alarming rate, which is pretty well done, the author has done her research on a famous (for the time) crime of....you guessed it......a husband who dies mysteriously and poison is indicated. The much younger wife is the first and only suspect and a case is built on less than solid evidence. Forensic science was practically unknown and the "experts" could not agree on the cause of death since the husband was known to take arsenic periodically. This was a practice that was far more common that I realized and did not have deadly effects if taken in small doses. Did he just take too much by accident or did his wife see this as a cover for killing him?

The trial is basically a fiasco with a senile judge and conflicting testimony and leads to a rather surprising conclusion. It is a pretty interesting read for something different.