The Maul and the Pear Tree by P. D. James

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The Maul and the Pear Tree

by P. D. James

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Mystery writer
turns her well-honed talents on
old London crime. (

)

librarianlk | May 2, 2009 |

3451. The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811, by P. D. James & T. A. Critchley (read May 28, 2001) Until Jack the Ripper came along in 1888 or so, the Ratcliffe Highway murders were apparently THE crime of the century in England. This carefully researched account of them nevertheless was less than absorbing reading as far as I was concerned. I suppose the fact I did not remember hearing of the crimes before detracted from my appreciation of the book, since some crimes (Lizzie Borden, the Lindbergh kidnapping, Jack the Ripper, e.g.,) have been the subject of my reading a number of books with undiminished interest. (

)

Schmerguls | Nov 23, 2007 |

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Epigraph

'Mr. Williams made his début on the stage of the Ratcliffe Highway, and executed those unparallelled murders which have procured for him such a brilliant and undying reputation. On which murders, by the way, I must observe that in one respect they have had an ill effect, by making the connoisseur in murder very fastidious in his taste, and dissatisfied by anything that has since been done in that line. All other murders look pale by the deep crimson of his.'

Thomas de Quincey,

On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth

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During the dark nights of December 1811 in the vicinity of Ratcliffe Highway, in the East End of London, two households, comprising seven people, were brutally clubbed to death within a period of twelve days. (Foreword)

A little before midnight on the last night of his life Timothy Marr, a linen draper of Ratcliffe Highway, set about tidying up the shop, helped by the shop-boy, James Gowen. (Chapter 1: Death of a Linen Draper)

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