Murder at Shandy Hall

by Michael Sheridan

Cork, May 1887. Murder stalks the countryside. Against a tranquil rural backdrop the sleepy County Cork village of Dripsey near Coachford a sensational Victorian murder is played out with a potent mix of love, lust, betrayal, and ultimately naked hatred. The entry of a young and beautiful governess into Shandy Hall, the home of a retired British Army surgeon Dr Philip Cross, acts as a catalyst for an act of horror that prompts suspicion, an exhumation, an inquest, and a charged courtroom drama that grabs newspaper headlines all over the world. The nation is transfixed by details of a murder which shatters the Victorian ideal of the home as a safe haven of privacy and comfort, and besmirches the blue-blooded reputation of an aristocratic line. The cast of real characters includes a cruel killer, cloaked in respectability; a beautiful and naïve governess; a blameless wife; a brilliant young pathologist; a canny and clever murder detective; two accomplished courtroom adversaries; a caring and emotional judge; and a notorious hangman. The unravelling of this true-life murder mystery will send a chill through your bones.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

381 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Helen Carolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear. I really wanted to like this one as Victorian true crime is one of my fave genres. Sadly this was repetitive and way too technical. The true story of an army surgeon who falls in love with his neighbours governess. Weeks later his wife is dead and he has married the governess. Sheridan got too bogged down in the technical aspects of the case and bored the hell out of me.

[Aidan Mc Carthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shandy Hall, a place name I remember from my childhood days.
My mother who was reared in Dromin, not too far from Dripsey told me the story as she knew it many times back then!
She would have heard it from her mother also, and even then it had become folklore in the telling.
The book is just great and has every detail of the story available, included.
It is also a page turner as the layout is straight forward and not in any way confusing or deceptive.
Great bedtime thriller!….

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting but quite repetitive.

[Thelma Gabbett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit boring at times and goes off In tangents about other cases it can b e confusing

[EJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Touted as an Irish sex scandal, the only scandal was how much of my time I won't get back from having read this. So as to hopefully not give the game away (though really it's not much of a game), may I just ask, Is it REALLY that scandalous for a guys wife to die "mysteriously" and then he marries his buddies governess, like, a month later? I mean, I guessss?? Sure, in Cork at the time, sure. And if it happened today, yeah, sure, still scandalous. What seems to bring this tawdry tale of twisted twue wuv down is the writing. An extensive amount of research went into the fabric of this book; unfortunately it all seems to have been directly cut and pasted from historical documents in which the information was found. Making it sound exceedingly dry, outdated, and not terribly interested in itself.

At some point the author makes reference to another book narrating similar nefarious events in the English countryside, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. Unfortunately in one fell swoop I purchased both Shandy Hall and Mr. Whicher, something I now regret as they are entirely alike in both content and style.

Please, unless you're really into dry reading, and I won't judge if you are, just skip this one.

[Delafere · Rating 3 out of 5]

while I enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down it didn't quite live up to expectations. there was a lot of research done including background information, setting the crime in its historical setting.though even here a little more on the situation in Ireland at the time would have been good.the main probably was the writing style which was a bit all over the place and reported things a lot. a bit too much of the text was taken from primary sources..not just quoted or reworded but almost copied and pasted. the aftermath left a lot to be desired especially since it is here he chose to write his imagings on what Laura cross's last moments were like. when compared to, as it most certainly must be being in the same genre as, the suspiciousions of Mr Whicher by Kate summerscale it doesn't come off favourably. it is an interesting story but has none of the suspense that the latter has. also the marketing ploy of trying to make it out to be the tale of an Irish sex scandal is amusing to say the least since there is little reference made to sexual relations in the book and it was certainly kept out of the trial.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of this book boosts "A Nineteenth Century Irish Sex Scandal." While that is technically true, the book reads more like "Court Transcripts from the Nineteenth Century." I like crime shows, and nonfiction, so this book was an interesting read, but the format is dry and straightforward and the author's main role seems to have been the assembling of historical documents. Only good for a serious true crime lover.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is VERY EARlY true crime i.e it's before finger printing ect.
NOT for those looking of CSI!!!!!