We're giving away two hardback copies of historical crime writer, Sinclair Mckay's latest books to five lucky winners. The Mile End Murderer and The Lady in the Cellar recount two murder cases that shocked Victorian London, retracing the original police inquiries and shedding light on mysteries that eluded the detectives of Scotland Yard.
To take part answer the following question.T&Cs apply.
The Mile End Murder
On Thursday 17th August 1860, wealthy widow Mary Emsley was found dead in her own home, killed by a blow to the back of her head. What followed was a murder case that gripped the nation. A veritable locked room mystery, there were an abundance of suspects and an investigation full of twists and dramatic discoveries. The case culminated in a sensational trial and one of the final public hangings. Though Arthur Conan Doyle was convinced an innocent person had been sent to their death, he was never able to find the real murderer.
The Lady in the Cellar
Standing four storeys tall in an elegant Bloomsbury terrace, number 4, Euston Square was a well-kept, respectable boarding house, whose tenants felt themselves to be on the rise in Victorian London. But beneath this genteel veneer lay a murderous darkness. For on 9th May 1879, the body of a former resident, Matilda Hacker, was discovered by chance in the coal cellar. The ensuing investigation stripped bare the dark side of Victorian domesticity, revealing violence, sex and scandal, and became the first celebrity case of the early tabloids.
Someone must have had full knowledge of what had happened to Matilda Hacker. For someone in that house had killed her. So how could the murderer prove so elusive?
Sinclair Mckay is The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, The Lost World of Bletchley Park, The Secret Life of Fighter Command, The Secret Listeners, The Spies of Winter and Mile End Murder for Aurum Press.
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