Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain

by Blessin Adams

NINE HISTORIC CRIMES. ONE FAMILIAR OBSESSION. In early modern England, murder truly was most foul. Trials were gossipy events packed to the rafters with noisome spectators. Executions were public proceedings which promised not only gore, but desperate confessions and the grandest, most righteous human drama. Bookshops saw grisly stories of crime and death sell like hot cakes. This history unfolds the true stories of murder, criminal investigation, early forensic techniques, high court trials and so much more. In thrilling narrative, we follow a fugitive killer through the streets of London, citizen detectives clamouring to help officials close the net. We untangle the mystery of a suspected staged suicide through the newly emerging science of forensic pathology. We see a mother trying to clear her dead daughter’s name while other women faced the accusations – sometimes true and sometimes not – of murdering their own children. These stories are pieced together from original research using coroner’s inquests, court records, parish archives, letters, diaries and the cheap street pamphlets that proliferated to satisfy a voracious public. These intensely personal stories portray the lives of real people as they confronted the extraordinary crises of murder, infanticide, miscarriage and suicide. Many historical laws and attitudes concerning death and murder may strike us as exceptionally cruel, and yet many still remind us that some things never change: we are still fascinated by narratives of murder and true crime, murder trials today continue to be grand public spectacles, female killers are frequently cast as aberrant objects of public hatred and sexual desire, and suicide remains a sin within many religious organisations and was a crime in England until the 1960s. Great and Horrible News! explores the strange history of death and murder in early modern England, yet the stories within may appear shockingly familiar.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Crime, Audiobook, Historical, British Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2023

About the author

Blessin Adams traded police work investigating today’s crime in the Norfolk Constabulary for academia, tracing the lives and deaths of people in early modern England. Blessin received her doctorate following research in early modern English law and literature at the University of East Anglia. As a fan of true crime she is fascinated by historical stories of murder and justice. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and two dogs, and is a beekeeper in her spare time.

Blessin's first book, Great and Horrible News, is currently available to order, and she is writing a second book due to be published in 2024.

She has also written a chapter titled 'Notebooks, Play and Legal Education at Middle Temple' in Mapping the Early Modern Inns of Court: Law, Literature and Identity, edited by Jackie Watson and Emma Rhatigan, due to be published by Palgrave.

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s been a murder!

In early modern England, crime was often brutal and so were the punishments. The public were fascinated and enthralled by the secrets and scandals behind the crimes and turned up in their thousands to watch the resulting executions. Their appetite for true crime was fed by the cheap news pamphlets that sensationalised the stories and whipped up public anger against individuals or sections of society. In this book, Adams uses examples culled from court and coroner records, news sheets and from letters and journals to examine how crimes were dealt with investigatively and through the criminal justice system, and how victims and criminals were perceived by the public. She argues that this period, 1500-1700, saw the beginnings of a secular, scientific approach to investigation, with increasing reliance on physical evidence, influenced by the cultural changes that accompanied the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. And she shows that, while we may no longer gather to watch gruesome public executions, the public fascination with crime and punishment hasn’t altered much in the intervening centuries.

As with all the best true crime, the crimes are merely a starting point. Adams uses each of the nine cases to highlight one or more aspects of the justice system and of the society of day. She has clearly researched the period thoroughly and writes very well, moving me more than once to anger or even tears, and using the scant records available to her to build convincing pictures of the people involved. If I have a criticism, it’s that sometimes I felt she perhaps embellished the bare bones a little to improve the storytelling aspects – I wondered more than once how she could have known what someone’s motivation was or how she could be so sure what had happened when she didn’t cite a specific source. But these moments were rare and I never felt she extrapolated unreasonably – I always felt her assumptions, if that’s what they were, were more likely to be true than not. And certainly her storytelling skills made this a fascinating read, humanising the history in a way that makes it more effective than a dry recounting of facts and statistics ever could.

There’s so much packed into each of the nine cases that I’m not even going to try to cover it all here. Instead I’ve picked a few examples to try to give a flavour of how Adams tells each story and uses it to take us deep into the culture of the period. Given that the stories cover 200 years, there’s plenty of scope for her to show us some of the changes that were happening, especially with regards to the change from religious to secular approaches to crime.

The first story is of John, a young apprentice murdered by his friend Nathaniel so that Nathaniel could rob the shop of John’s master. Adams tells us about Cheapside and the traders who worked there, specialising in luxury goods like gold and silk. She shows how the street names in the surrounding area originated from the various markets held there – Milk Street, Bread Street, etc. The murder is gruesomely told as it was in the pamphlets of the time, and the investigation seems efficient and surprisingly similar to modern investigations, relying on physical clues, witnesses, background checks on suspects, etc. She takes us beyond Nathaniel's conviction to his time in Newgate, describing the appalling conditions in which prisoners were kept. She explains the need for him to be “converted” to satisfy the prevailing religious agenda, and how this was achieved. As she takes us through his eventual confession, guilt and remorse, and his execution by public hanging, Adams shows how the public, again very similar to today, soon lost interest in John, the victim, and became fixated on Nathaniel, the murderer, even feeling sympathy for him as his remorse was reported in the news sheets.

Elizabeth was a young girl sent as a maid to a man who repeatedly raped her then threw her out when she became pregnant. Elizabeth was one of the lucky ones – her mother and sister hid her so she was saved from life on the streets. The baby died at birth and she was tried for infanticide, but found innocent. This story is used as a basis to discuss women's vulnerability to their masters, the horrific misogynistic laws around bastardy and infanticide, and early forensic ways of differentiating between stillbirth and infanticide. Adams shows the importance of midwives as expert witnesses at this time in deciding on how the death of a newborn occurred. I found this story particularly heartbreaking despite the fact that Elizabeth was found innocent. The lack of records means we don't know what happened to her in her future life.

A couple of the stories involve suicide, and Adams shows the inhumanity of the laws surrounding this subject. Suicide was considered a crime and those found guilty would have their property forfeited, leaving their families destitute. This led desperate families to try to make suicides look like accident or murder in order to avoid forfeiture, and of course this had to be done immediately while the family was still dealing with shock and grief. Forfeiture was not enough for a harsh religiously-influenced state – the body of the suicide would then be desecrated before being buried in an unconsecrated pit, which of course at that time meant no hope of eternal salvation. Adams shows that suicide then, as today, often arose out of depression and mental illness, but she also gives an example of what was thought of as “honourable suicide”, a hangover from the days of chivalry, when a man who had failed in some way, especially in public life, would take his own life. Adams shows that while in general the public strongly disapproved of suicide, honourable suicide often met with a more sympathetic reaction.

Baby farms, political crimes, religious mania – these and many more aspects of crime and justice are also covered in this fascinating book. I found every story interesting and felt Adams got a really great balance between facts and the human traumas behind them. One I heartily recommend both to true crime fans, and to people more generally interested in the social and cultural aspects of the early modern period.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, 4th Estate, via NetGalley.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the time before modern media, true crime was still a popular subject. Bookshops & pubs from the early modern period covered here, right up until the Victorian era, stocked pamphlets & even song sheets about notorious & grisly crimes. Before the advent of forensic science, a police force, & the modern justice system, how were crimes solved? The author uses inquests records for coroner's courts, parish archives, letters, diaries etc to put together the circumstances surrounding the nine crimes discussed in the book.
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I love reading about true crime, & I love history too, so this book was an absolute got-to-read for me. This is a true crime book with a difference, the crimes are from the 1500 & 1600s in England (roughly from the early reign of Henry VIII to the start of William & Mary's reign). The author does a great job of explaining the English justice system of the time & how things worked, which was very interesting to read, alongside showing societal prejudices. The second case aptly highlights the double standards of the time: young women who were in domestic service were often taken advantage of by the men of the household & then turned outdoors when they became pregnant. They were then reviled by the rest of society including their neighbours for their 'moral failings', whilst guess what happened to the men? That's right, usually absolutely nothing. If the women should miscarry or their baby not survive for long, they then ran the risk of being prosecuted for murder, even if there was little evidence. One wonders just how many lives were needlessly cut short during this time.

It's an intriguing, informative read which I found fascinating, but please be aware of the trigger warnings as there are some sensitive subjects dealt with. The cases cover suicides, & violent murders including infanticide - it's certainly not an easy read. I give this book full marks though as I think the author does such a good job of drawing the reader straight into the cases, by setting the scene & introducing those involved, & explaining the justice system of the time. 5 stars

TWs: violent murder, suicide, death of children, miscarriage, animal cruelty & death.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, 4th Estate/William Collins, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all have a horror of violent murder. But Pre-Modern Christians had an extra reason to fear it: a murdered man had no opportunity to prepare his soul for judgment. A murderer not only killed his victim, he could conceivably have sent him to hell.

[lina]

call me petty but it annoys me to no end that they picked a male narrator for the audiobook when the author is a woman. sure it‘s non-fiction but something tells me they would not have done that if the subject was early modern baking utensils instead of execution methods

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

apart from so many typos (proofreading! is! important!), i enjoyed this a lot!

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well researched, intriguing, and gripping historical book or a book about historical true crime.
It's compelling, well written, and informative.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Saimi Korhonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"One of the agonies in researching crime in this period is that so much of the historical record has not survived. Many records have simply been lost or destroyed, others thrown away in the name of bureaucratic efficiency, a few have been stolen, and many yet remain undiscovered in the dark recesses of archives and libraries. From what small pieces we have, there are to be found amazing stories of the lives and deaths of people that at once seem so distant and yet so familiar."

3,5/5!

Blessin Adams's Great and Horrible News details nine criminal cases from Early Modern Britain (around 1500 to 1700). She explores the case itself - what happened, who did it, why did it happen and how was it dealt with - but she also uses these crimes to explore different major societal issues of the time, such as religious tensions, the status of unmarried mothers and poverty.

Great and Horrible News was a really easy-to-read look at historical cases of murder, mayhem and crime, and I think Adams did, overall, a good job of using these cases to look at the larger issues behind them. This is not a book that just revels in the gore and the violence, but attempts to get the reader to think about different issues as well as how this fascination with true crime is something that unites us with the people of the past. It seems humans have always been drawn to crime cases – the phenomenon of true crime is not modern at all. We have also seemed to always have had a tendency to focus more on the killer, nearly forgetting the life that was lost in the making of that killer – the case of Nathaniel Butler, the murderer of John Knight, is a good example of this. My biggest complains would be that I wished that the book had been a bit more analytical (I would've loved a bit more contextualisation and going deeper with the analysis, but I also understand that this book is not about that, but about offering an easy-to-understand look into the past and how they dealt with violent crime) and that there had been more direct quotations from the sources Adams referenced, such as court transcripts, songs, plays, newsletters and pamphlets.

Adams did a great job showcasing how, in some ways, people have not changed but how the world has also changed so much since the early modern period. You can recognise a lot about these stories - emotions, familial dynamics and so on - but you are also, often, left absolutely baffled as to how these people could truly think or act the way they did. Single mothers and having a baby out of wedlock are quite normal today, but back in the day, unwed mothers were treated as human garbage and could be subjected to carnal punishment, such as whippings, and public humiliations. If they had no one to turn to, the parish could help them, but the law demanded that every mother whose bastard was cared for by the parish had to spend a year in a "house of correction". It did not matter if a woman had been sexually assaulted, the fault was hers (never the father's) and her reputation was in tatters. The story of Elizabeth, a young maid assaulted by her master and then kicked out when her pregnancy became known, was a sad one, as was the tale of Anne, a young maid who had had a miscarriage and had been charged with infanticide, because she had covered up the remains of her hardly developed infant, which, in the eyes of law, was hiding a body (Anne survived her hanging and lived the rest of her life as a kind of celebrity for it - probably a very traumatised one). The idea of people in their thousands flocking to see a public execution - even buying access to windows in nearby buildings for a better view - may seem alien to us but it was popular entertainment. And in terms of legal proceedings, well, so much was absolutely bonkers and, in our eyes, highly unjust. Richard Hunne, a Lollard who was either murdered or accidentally killed during torture, by the Church's men, was tried with treason when he was already dead: his body was charged, tried and sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Adams did a good job showcasing how different facets of society - class, gender dynamics, religion, wealth, heritage and so on - were tied together and how they all impacted the way people were treated in the eyes of the law.

One of the most striking aspects of the book, for me, was getting to know how people in the early modern period thought of suicide. Suicide was seen as the ultimate crime against god, a sign of profound moral failure and not a tragedy born out of loss, emotional anguish or mental illness, but a crime, a murder. People who had taken their lives could be tried, after their deaths, of murdering themselves. Suicide was also seen as something that could bring bad luck to a community, and it brought shame to the entire family, not just the person who died. The bodies of people who took their own lives could be dragged through the streets, they were denied proper burial (marks were left on their graves so everyone knew this person was "not worthy of grieving") and the church denied them their blessings and prayers. In a highly religious time, this was truly traumatising and frightening for the ones left behind. But oh, it gets worse. There was a law that demanded that everything the person who had killed themselves had owned - everything from house to livestock to spoons - would be claimed by the state, forcing their family to immediate, acute poverty. This led to people desperate actions, such as hiding their belongings and, like in the case of Francis, a man who most likely killed himself, mutilating the bodies of suicide victims to make it look like they had been killed. Francis's family brutalised his corpse and while this is an insidious, horrible idea, you have to understand how desperate those people were. Even their neighbours and friends helped them cover up the suicide, because even though people saw it as a huge crime against god, people loathed the unjust law that targeted the deceased person's loved ones even more. I like how, in the case of Francis, Adams stated that neither Francis, his family or the person who tried to get them convicted of covering up the crime was really at fault here: at fault was the horrible, unjust law and the people who had decreed it. The final story, that of John Temple, showcased also how complex the matter of suicide could be and how, in some occasions, it could be seen as an honourable thing to do, especially in the upper classes. I definitely want to explore and research historical attitudes towards suicide further in the future.

As a gender historian, I was naturally highly intrigued by the cases regarding women. I was already quite aware of just how abysmally unwed mothers were treated and how they were blamed for everything (it always angers me how no one ever seemed to wonder who it was that had gotten the woman in question pregnant...) and treated like shit. But I had never, in detail, read this much about infanticide and how unmarried women were, essentially, always treated as baby-killers if they had had a miscarriage, had birthed a dead baby or had lost their baby to illness soon after birth. The idea was that if a woman was so morally bankrupt as to get pregnant out of wedlock, surely she could just as easily kill their child. It's near unbearable to think about how the law could demonise unmarried women for getting pregnant but also demonise them for "failing" to keep said baby alive or for covering up their "shame". There was no winning for these women. Infanticide was way more common in this time period and it was treated as the ultimate sign of a woman failing to be a proper woman, but no one stopped to think about the societal pressures and problems that often led to people to commit infanticide, such as intense poverty and how there was hardly any support for lonely mothers. It is also baffling how the law can claim to protect the lives of babies but also declare them unfit for proper burial, forcing people to bury them in random fields and without the proper religious ceremonies. Margaret's story - a woman who converted to Catholicism and killed two of her children to "protect" them from sin after their dad refused to convert and let her raise her kids in her faith - was an intriguing look at how people responded to women's violence and how, like it seems to still be today, people resorted to monstering Margaret and depicting her as more animal than human to escape having to deal with the uncomfortable truth that women are capable of violence and cruelty, that women can be complex humans and not just perfect women or horrible beasts. I get that it is easier to think that a woman who killed the kids she loved a lot must be simply mad or a monster pretending to be a human, but the truth is, people are capable of all kinds of contradictory acts. Margaret's actions were also blamed on the big boogeyman of the time, the Catholic Church, and she was depicted as the hapless victim of their manipulations and corruption. Anything but see her as a human who did something terrible but perhaps also still loved her children. The case of the murderous midwife Mary Compton was an interesting look at the role of midwives in this time period – they were one of the few respectable professions for women and they were trusted and respected as upstanding examples of womanhood in their communities. They were also often heard in court as experts on matters relating to infants, the female body and sexual violence.

Finally, I wanna mention a few things about religion. This was a deeply religious time but also a time of constant religious upheaval in Britain. There was the Reformation and then constant tensions between Catholics and Protestants. Religion was imbedded in everything, including the justice system. I liked how Adams explored, for example, the importance of proper burial and how denying this for some people was a truly horrifying and frightening threat, and the role of priests and religious "guidance" for people condemned to death. Adams wrote about how, of course, some priests truly wanted to give support, comfort and aid to those near death, such as Nathaniel Butler, who became devout in his final weeks after killing his friend for money. But she also emphasised how aiding people and getting notorious criminals to repent, confess and seek spiritual aid in their final moments was a propaganda victory for the church. If a killer can find God and be forgiven, you can too. Stories of people like Nathaniel or Margaret, who renounced her actions and declared she had been a fool to do what she did after weeks of holding on to her Catholic faith, were seen as examples of God's power. Reading about the was the Church attempted to help people near death, and then reading about how the Church was allowed to torture people and how a Bishop had a murder room, left me, well, feeling quite contradicted. It was uncomfortable reading just how much religion dictated the court's actions and how poorly people of different faiths were treated – but understanding the weight of religion is key to understanding many historical time periods.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in criminal history and true crime, as well as people who wanna learn more about gender history, class history and religious history. I will definitely be picking up Blessin Adams's other book in the future.


Here are some interesting facts I learned:

- Silk merchants were, in the 1600s, considered some of the fanciest and richest merchants.

- Suicide was a crime in England until 1961 (appalling, I know).

- The most severe punishment preserved for people like those convicted of treason – hanging, drawing and quartering - also included placing body parts of the convicted felon on show in places like their home streets as a warning sign and further humiliation. What a truly horrifying way of psychologically tormenting people and especially the family of the deceased.

- Early modern people were obsessed with true crime, much like we are today, and for example court transcripts sold like hot cakes.

- The trial of Spencer Cowper, charged with the murder of Sarah Stout, was the first trial in England where forensic, pathological evidence was used extensively, medical professionals stepped up as major players, experts did experiments to prove their point (horrifyingly, these drowning experiments were done on dogs...) and so on: this trial changed legal proceedings!

- Sarah Stout's case became a sensation and intrigued armchair detectives all over early modern Britain – did she commit suicide, or was she killed? If it wasn't Spencer, as the court judged, who was it?

- Lollards were pre-reformation people who wanted to modernise the English Catholic church, make the Bible available in English and so on. They were seen as dangerous heretics and many were even burned at the stake.

- The Church was legally allowed to torture people during interrogation as long as they did not draw blood - as if you couldn't cause horrifying or deadly harm to someone without shedding blood. The Bishop in the story of Richard Hunne, the Lollard who was killed, had a murder/torture room.

- The wherrymen of the Thames passed on their knowledge within families and were very proud of their role in London. In 1598 it was estimated that around 2000 wherryboats travelled the Thames and that 3000 people were employed in the wherrybusiness.

- If a person's killer was unknown, they were called, in official documents, John Atstyle.

- The Court of the Star Chamber was a notorious court who sentenced without a jury, unbeholden by regular court customs. Their punishments included whippings, maiming and so on.

- Miles Sindercome and his allies failed to kill Oliver Cromwell six times – they truly were near hilariously bad at being assassins.

[Chloe Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

[Suzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories and well written, but probably not one which will stay with me long term.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blessin Adams presents an interesting range of historical true crime cases that shed a light on the judicial system of that time as well as how society as a whole worked. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and feel like I've gained a greater understanding of what drove the early moderns, and how they lived (and died).

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging and interesting read. After an introduction setting out the intention of the book, each chapter focuses on a different crime. The facts of the case are laid out for the reader, along with necessary societal or cultural context from the time period, followed by an assessment of the events by the author. As a structure, it worked really well. The chapters were all roughly the same length so it was an easy book to dip in and out of; you really could just pick it back up after not reading it for a while.

Generally, the writing was very good, and very engaging. It’s an interesting glimpse into the world of crime and punishment during this time period, and it was also interesting to explore what murder actually is – for example, that suicide was often regarded as self-murder, which was not something I thought the book would go into.

The cases that the book focuses on were chosen well. They were all compelling and complex, and are told well, usually simply, with some attempt to assess the events from a modern perspective whilst also acknowledging that we live in a very different time period. However, I felt the book meandered a bit towards the end and the last chapter felt very weak in comparison to the rest. In addition the actual ending was incredibly blunt. I felt this really needed one more chapter just to round everything off.

My other issue was the scope of the book, which is the time period mentioned in the title. The introduction and the title both state that the book will cover the whole Early Modern period (1500-1700). However, all but one of the stories covered happens in the 1600s. This isn’t a problem and I can very well imagine why there is only 1 case featured from the 1500s, but I don’t think it would have hurt to title the book as only covering the 1600s. I think it’s probably a petty detail but I couldn’t help but dwell on it when I was reading!

Overall, though, this is a solid read, and if you’re interested in true crime I think this is a different perspective on the topic. It really brought home to me how different the attitudes of the past were, and it was fascinating to see the glimpses of early concepts of forensic science. But the real highlight were the human stories it focused on. The communities working together, men standing up for what is right – including standing up to the King, in one case –, people seeking justice for those too vulnerable to seek it from themselves, women being treated with compassion where you would not expect it. It reminds you that people in history had lives, thoughts, morals not too dissimilar to our own, even if our societies were different. Some of these tales of determination and bravery to do what is right were emotional and well-told, and I was glad to be educated on this topic.

Content Notes:

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of murder, death, violence, executions (including hanging and of someone being hanged drawn and quartered), blood, knife violence, armed robbery, infanticide, death of a child, death of a child in childbirth, miscarriage, rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, child sexual abuse, mutilation of a corpse, suicide, suicidal thoughts, child abuse, child neglect, graphic descriptions of injuries sustained to a baby due to long-term neglect, drowning, torture, religious persecution..

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fascinated by historical crime, medieval laws, and early “forensics”. This book has all of that. It’s informative and interesting, and it’s also a little appalling to see perspectives from the 1600s coming back into fashion today. Audiobook is the way to go with this one - Jonathan Keeble is a treasure.

[jil · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so gory jesus

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it had been longer. Volume 2 please?!

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5☆

[Ghada · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! The only issue is that it was short

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

man the early moderns were obsessed with killing themselves or other people killing themselves, absolutely wild

[kgh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a historical novel set in England. And I really enjoyed reading about how murders are solved and the judicial processes at that time. The stories go into detail the law that was broken- at times by both the victim and the perpetrator- and raised the question of whether the actual law had, in part, helped cause the crime itself.

This was hugely shocking in some areas, particularly how segregated certain groups of women were and the injustice of how the process was dealt with, which were at times literally based upon class and gender.

I found it interesting about how suspicious deaths were investigated and what type of 'forensics' were available to them at the time.

A really good read, but very intense and sad in parts.

[Olivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The cases got extremely repetitive in the end, they all seemed to be about drownings and suicides. I went into the book expecting more to be said about forensic pathology and it’s history and was disappointed with the links to modern times. Why were they so loosely linked with a generic sentence here and there? The included history of England seemed very disjointed and often plain confusing why it was being included at all. I found one or two cases quite interesting and lost interest in the others. I found myself skim reading the last 2 cases as throughout the book they are presented as facts on a page as if taken directly from old records, with no elaboration, and were the same old things being repeated

[Ellie Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, at times even informative (although not without having to do my own research alongside it), and yet incredibly irritating at the same time. Adams is yet another historical writer who cannot seem to resist saturating her work in sanctimonious modern moralising, with the assumption that her worldview is ubiquitous. With the additional lack of references, numerous typos and even incorrectly used words, I am left feeling very annoyed despite enjoying the stories.

[LB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jonathan Keeble, who was excellent. I listened for long stretches and didn't want to stop.

It seems that there is a tendency to view the obsession with true crime as some kind of modern depravity, a symptom of societal breakdown. But as this book shows, humans have been obsessed with death and murder for centuries (likely millennia). The sensational and sad have always fascinated us. This book outlines a series of cases that highlight broader trends in law and crime and the public's reaction to them.

I had never heard of any of the cases presented in this book, which is a wonderful surprise, since it seems we tend to get a lot of the same historical true crimes over and over (understandably, since not all crimes have left a lot of records behind). While some involved wealthy or well known figures, others were ordinary citizens who might have been otherwise lost to memory if they hadn't met a grisly end.

Each case highlighted some fascinating facets of contemporary attitudes towards death and crime. I particularly found the sections on suicide interesting. Of course I was aware that suicide was taboo and viewed as a sin by the church, but it also had very strong legal ramifications -- a person who took their life could actually be posthumously convicted of a felony, and their lands and fortunes seized. For these reasons many families tried to disguise a suicide as a murder or natural death, or disprove a coroner's ruling of suicide (using early forensic pathology). And of course all of this is complicated by the final case explored, which highlights that sometimes suicide was viewed as not only acceptable, but noble. Like today, social attitudes don't always align perfectly with the law.

The case highlighting the treatment of unwed mothers who miscarried or delivered stillborn children was also heartbreaking, and feels sadly relevant to our current situation. Women who gave birth to even early term non-viable fetuses had to prove to the court that they had made a good faith effort to save their baby, otherwise it would be considered an intentional abortion. It's no surprise that many women hid the results of these pregnancies, even when no foul play was committed. While these attitudes didn't surprise me, I hadn't realized just how involved the courts got in these matters, and that many women were actually put to death for what were likely natural or unpreventable losses.

Overall I learned a lot from this book, in a very engaging and entertaining format. Am I a ghoul for being fascinated by this topic? Possibly, but I feel I'm in good and long established company.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the premise of this book is great, and the different chapters presented in this book are both interesting and informative. This book was also easy to read in its use of language, and I appreciated that the writer is an ex-policewoman who had background knowledge.

However, this book feels like it hasn't been edited at all! The events are not in chronological order, forcing the reader to shuffle back and forth in their mind. Multiple times, facts or statements repeated across chapters, as if the writer wrote each chapter individually and then put it together without considering the flow of their work. There is an introduction but no conclusion to the book. I also thought the grammar was not finely combed as it should be.

There were also multiple spelling mistakes, and no referencing or bibliography used whatsoever. If you wanted to look at any of the resources mentioned in this book, you would likely end up doing more research than the author!

It's so disappointing, because I love the content of the book, but the quality of writing lets it down.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an okay account of a handful of historic cases I wasn’t already aware of (which is always nice as many books seem to rehash the same 10 stories) however it’s just lacking much depth. It’s deficient in any meaningful analysis and the book feels more like a retelling of cases directly from the newspapers rather than presenting it from any specific point of view. This in itself would have been fine as rewriting for a modern audience can make the cases more approachable due to changes in language, but it feels that the author was torn between this and trying to insert a vague analytical moral note, which led to a muddied and less impactful storytelling style.

I was hopeful the author was going to introduce an angle with which to analyse the behaviour of townsfolk involved in these stories, or the authors own opinion on the nature of the crimes. Indeed, it often felt like while trying to provide “both sides”, Addams excused the killers due to lack of historical evidence, rather than using this as a time to discuss treatment of women or the mentally ill at the time and make meaningful points about miscarriages of justice. In fact, as the author used to be in the police force, I’m not quite sure why this isn’t used more to compare and contrast to current cases, or ways in which the justice system has ‘improved’ since (or if there are still similar issues today)

I think my main problem with the book is that it’s very repetitive, with a lot of the same language and small amounts of analysis being used. At times, I felt if certain chapters were combined or moved places it would provide better context for information to come later, and would make the book more succinct.

I have to give credit to the author, you can tell they are obviously passionate about this topic, and interested in the research and I can’t fault them for that. I would read another book by them in the hopes that the writing style had changed slightly as it’s always exciting to come across a book with new information, and it was a really quick read too.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because I'm interested in true crime and history, and it combined the two. I thought it would be good to look at true crime from a historical perspective and see how the attitudes of the time differed. The description promises stories of murder and mayhem. What we got was not quite that.

The first issue I had with this book was the repetitiveness. The stories cover a lot of the same ground. Several of them cover actual or possible suicides, where we go over again and again how people thought of suicides and how the families of suicide victims were affected, and so on. One or two stories like this would have been fine, but it seemed like at least half of them were about this or touched on it in some way.

The second issue I had was the spelling errors. They were quite noticeable and there were quite a few of them. Not great.

The third issue was the lack of references or a bibliography. Though the introduction covers some of the sources used, in a general and vague way, the actual stories themselves use quotes from the sources without citations, and this bothered me. I expect more from a non fiction, to be honest.

As a result, I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped, and was left disappointed that a book I was so looking forward to ended up being so...meh.

Would not recommend, unfortunately.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are interesting themselves and no doubt a great deal of research has gone into it, however I found it difficult to stay engaged. In some parts, more time is given to explaining background than the actual story, and in others assumptions appear to be made without historical context being considered. Long winded and repetitive, but interesting in the less fussy sections.

[T.O. Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good 'historical true crime compilation' book so Great and Horrible News was right up my street.

Interestingly, Adams doesn't stick to conventional murder stories. Although the book opens with a brutal killing of a young man by his friend in pursuance of a theft, other tales cover religious manslaughter, concealed still births and shocking neglect of fostered children.

This range of cases enables Adams to give some sharp insights into the conventions and culture of the 1500s and 1600s, such that the actual 'cases' are as much windows into a period of history as mysteries in their own right.

For example, Elizabeth Balleans, briefly in domestic service, abused and made pregnant by her master and the delivered of a stillborn child stood trial for infanticide. The 17th Century patriarchy's misogynistic contempt for unmarried mothers made Elizabeth's plight a desperate one. However, given contemporary fears in America - where a woman who miscarries might be accused of an abortion and denied medical attention by doctors afraid of being accused of complicity - one wonders how far we have actually moved on. As Adams notes in the eyes of the law the value of miscarried, stillborn and murdered infants was at once priceless and of no worth at all. They were protected by the full force of state legislature, only to be tucked away in hidden graves; unmarked, unnamed and forgotten in the wake of so much anger.

Adams' scrutiny of court records and contemporary accounts shows the development of a forensic and scientific approach to the business of evidence with the trial of Spencer Cowper being a masterful defence against the accusation of murder, though it left the alleged victim tainted with the stigma of suicide (though not pregnancy outside marriage). In that story alone, there is the makings of a fine movie.

But most interesting to me was the case of the murder in the Lollard's tower, for its conflict between secular and religious authorities. When an accused heretic is found apparently having hanged himself in his cell, it takes a stubbornly dutiful coroner to try to expose the truth. This case has some parallels with Epstein - for the desperate attempt of the indupitably guilty Bishop to distract attention from the manner of the man's death by subjecting his corpse to a show trial for heresy. Unsurprisingly incapable of defending himself, or of refuting suspect 'new evidence' the corpse is duly convicted but the coroner is not satisfied.

Adams gives a very satisfying explanation of what must have happened, all revolving around the fact that the church could torture people in pursuit of a confession, provided it did not draw any blood. (See also the priest's ability to go into battle but only using bludgeoning/crushing weapons like maces and hammers - rather than bladed weapons that would slash or cut - a constraint well know to any players of D&D.) The church torturer's implement of choice was a hot wire poked up the nose (See also the alleged 'bloodless' death of Edward II allegedly due to a red hot poker inserted in a different orifice). The bishop's team of underlings, in their haste to extract a confession of heresy, botched their torture, triggered a nosebleed from a wire inserted too deep, killed their desperately struggling (and probably fatally wounded) victim and then tidied the body and dressed it for suicide - even going so far as to put a hat on his head. Sadly - as a slight spoiler - the coroner's diligence did not get its due reward as the young King Henry VIII forced through a compromise of acquittal that satisfied no-one.

Other tales within the book cover issues of charity - with the acknowledgement that 'deserving' desperate people must be looked after but nobody wants to pay properly for it. Which allowed the bloody midwife of poplar to flourish - and which reminded me of the contemporary outsourcing of care provision from councils to private (profit making) companies - as ever there are people who can make money from misery.

But all in all a fascinating collection, beautifully told with images and descriptions that conjure up context and characters as much as the crimes themselves.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gloriously Gruesome!


After coming across the author Blessin Adams on history podcast interviews I was so interested in the books she wrote which she talked about. I like to do my research before deciding on my non fiction books and after many interviews she finally sold this book to me, just by quoting one of the factual events she purposely put into the book's introduction to whet the reader's appetite.

That is of a butcher who's been arrested and locked up in a cell, he attempts suicide by slicing his stomach open and pulling out his intestines!

Don't get me wrong, i'm no sadistic that's into human suffering, it's the macabre effect that is so delicious and also as a history fanatic I love the connection of our ancestors and what they went through.

What an insane thing to do, what led him to do this, it fed my curiosity so much.

As Blessin says in an interview, she knows this will sell the book and as with all the cases in this book it's with all due respect. She writes all of these what were crime cases at the time showing each individual and their family's point of view with such deserved sympathy.

It's easy to choose a fictional book, if i fancy the story or are interested in the subject matter, i buy it, simple. Non fiction however takes a lot of research before choosing the right book as there are lots of books on the particular subject so that's a lot of studying to find the suitable style and angle. This book just popped up in the midst of listening to history podcasts and its uniqueness struck me, so I just kept on listening to Blessin Adams interviews until she finally sold it to me. She actually sold me her second book first, Thou Savage Woman again through an excerpt from the book, a woman trying yet failing to poison her husband because she was having an affair with her servant. Again I am just so intrigued!

So Great And Horrible News is gloriously gruesome, in that it really hit me. I couldn't believe the shocking ways people were killed or died in this period of history, i've never felt actual emotion hearing about deaths in history so deeply as I have in this book, i mean throughout history I've felt real sympathy for Joan Of Arc's tragic end and of course those women accused of being witches, it's Blessin's writing style that completely opens up such emotion for other events that would normally just pass me by if just hearing about it or a brief factual read, but Blessin goes into the fine detail of what these people went through and what life was like back when they were alive.

Without spoiling my unforgettable highlights are when a woman is suddenly revealed as being alive at the autopsy! The full details of being hung drawn and quartered. What the authorities do to your body and family when you commit suicide. What happens to peasant women when they become pregnant. A mother's extreme measures towards her children all in the name of religion believing they'll go to Hell.

These gruesome ways of suffering are told within 9 cases of horrific crimes in early modern Britain.

The writing is utterly superb and its amazing research must have been painstaking for Blessin Adams, she's certainly gone through the archives with a fine toothcomb.

The book reads like 9 short stories each set in their own beautiful vivid environments.

An absolute gem of a book, alongside its unique subject matter is the most excellent book cover, perfect for my bookshelf!

This is an author to watch out for.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable and engagingly written book which covers a number of case studies in Early Modern England relating to concepts of 'murder' and 'mayhem'. Most of these 'murders' are actually suicides - or 'self-murder' - and the other (two?) relate to infanticide, so perhaps a better title for this particular book might be 'Suicide in Early Modern England'. This isn't to say the topic of suicide in history is not interesting, but a few more varied case studies of homicides would have made this book more well rounded and accurate to the title, in my view.

This book suffers for lack of a bibliography. It seems mad to me that a history book wouldn't contain proper references and a complete bibliography - even in a popular history, such as this - and I think the author does herself a disservice in not including one, as she has clearly done plenty of research and archive trawling for this book. I was also bothered by the quantity of typos and errors in the text. Proofreading and editing is so important! Some parts of this read like an assignment being completed in a rush one minute before the TurnItIn deadline, which is a shame as the writing style is engaging and exciting for the most part.

I was also bothered by the lack of a conclusion. it just... ended with the final case study. I like my non-fiction to be nearly wrapped up at the end! It was also strange that the cases were chronologically sporadic for no apparent reason. It would also have been lovely to have a section of illustrations of the pamphlets and pictures mentioned in the text, and perhaps ballads relating to the case studies printed too. I think those would have really brought the book to life a little more.

Altogether, I enjoyed Great and Horrible News, but it was rather let down by a lack of proofreading, structure, and bibliography. Nevertheless, I would recommend it if you're looking for an undemanding read about suicide or infanticide in Early Modern England.