The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer

ISBN: 1616206896

Author: Jobb, Dean

Condition: New

A true crime page-turner about a Victorian doctor, a serial killer ahead of his time, using poison for an international murder spree that kept ahead of the burgeoning field of forensics. A tour de force of storytelling. -Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Gamache seriesWinner of the 2022 CrimeCon True Crime Book of the Year AwardLonglisted for the American Library Associations Andrew Carnegie Medal for ExcellenceDon't miss Dean Jobb's A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, coming June 25, 2024!When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals, Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most baffling investigations. He has nerve and he has knowledge. In the span of fifteen years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered as many as ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedent. Poison was his weapon of choice. Largely forgotten today, this villain was as brazen as the notorious Jack the Ripper.Structured around the doctors London murder trial in 1892, when he was finally brought to justice, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners, as well as the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials, and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Dr. Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help.Dean Jobb transports readers to the late nineteenth century as Scotland Yard traces Dr. Creams life through Canada and Chicago and finally to London, where new investigative tools called forensics were just coming into use, even as most police departments still scoffed at using science to solve crimes. But then, most investigators could hardly imagine that serial killers existed-the term was unknown. As the Chicago Tribune wrote, Dr. Creams crimes marked the emergence of a new breed of killer: one who operated without motive or remorse, who murdered simply for the sake of murder. For fans of Erik Larsons The Devil in the White City, all things Sherlock Holmes, or the podcast My Favorite Murder, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream is an unforgettable true crime story from a master of the genre.Jobbs excellent storytelling makes the book a pleasure to read. -The New York Times Book Review