15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"It's always the quiet ones. . . .", March 21, 2006
John Boyne's "Crippen" is a superb historical mystery in which the author puts his own spin on a heinous crime that took place in Camden, England in 1910. Dr. Hawley Crippen is not really a doctor, but rather a mousy individual who has read up on medical subjects and taken some correspondence courses. However, Hawley is not averse to passing himself off as a doctor in order to eke out a living. He is incredibly unlucky with women. When he marries for the second time, he makes the mistake of choosing a harridan named Cora, who abuses him both verbally and physically when she is not busy taking other men into her bed. After Cora is found murdered and hacked to death in the cellar of the Crippen household, Hawley is the prime suspect.
"Crippen" is a textured, involving, and suspenseful psychological study of how a mentally unstable parent can permanently damage her child, and how a monstrous woman can make her husband's existence into a living hell. In addition, Boyne brilliantly, and with mordant humor, analyzes the hypocrisy of the upper classes in England, the predatory nature of newspaper reporters, and the impossibility of ever fully understanding the complexity of people's motives, feelings, and desires.
The author constructs his story meticulously, teasing the reader with bits of information that become meaningful later on in the narrative. He goes back and forth in time, creating a rich and colorful tapestry with fully realized and lively characters. Among them are the insufferable Antoinette Drake, a stuffy, self-absorbed, and obnoxious dowager, Captain Kendall, the skipper of a luxurious transatlantic ocean liner who is distracted by the illness of the first officer whom he adores, and Ethel LeNeve, a young woman who finds something of value in Hawley Crippen, and attempts to rescue him from his life of misery. John Boyne depicts Crippen as a marvelously complicated individual. Is he an innocent and self-effacing man who is desperate for affection and some peace of mind, or is he a conniving criminal trying to get away with murder? Boyne saves some tasty surprises for the dramatic conclusion of this terrific Dickensian tale of tortured love, heartache, and death.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"It's rotten to the core. A thing of beauty in itself", July 28, 2006
Part murder mystery and part historical novel John Boyne's sensational Crippen: a Novel of Murder tells of the real Crippen murder case, which occurred in London in 1910. Boyne, in his story, beautifully brings to life this world in all its self-propriety grandeur, and in the process, emphasizes humanity's mordant desire to know the all the facts about the most macabre and chilling crimes such as this.
Boyne presents Crippen as a complex and enigmatic man - whom although painted as a monster for murdering his wife, chopping her up and burying pieces of her under the stones in his cellar - was in reality a meek and harmless person who probably wouldn't hurt a fly. The novel traces the historical journey of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen from his childhood in Canada, where his worldview was shaped by his puritanical, severely religious mother.
Desiring to become a doctor, yet unable to be given all the advantages of education so that he might escape his family, Crippen travels to America, eventually finding work as a medical assistant, his second rate qualifications obtained through correspondence courses.
It is in New York where Hawley meets Cora Turner, a music hall dancer, who convinces him to take her to London so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming a famous diva. But Cora turns out to be a shrieking and violent harpy, a heartless, evil, nasty and manipulative witch, and a flagrantly vulgar, lustful and faithless wife who constantly hounds Hawley for not being socially good enough.
Cora ends up abusing Hawley physically, unashamedly sleeping with other men in their house. At first, he was her way out of the gutter and she was someone who listened to him and said she believed in him. Their fights would often end with her screaming at him, berating him, threatening him with frying pans and pots, while he would eventually agree to do whatever she asked. Mostly their arguments were caused by Hawley's inability to fund the lifestyle that Cora thought she deserved.
The macabre and the bloodthirsty always-fascinated Hawley. In fact, he was so proud of his abilities and so much in love with the art of medicine that for him "the music of pain was nothing more than a melody to work by." But was he evil enough to kill Cora and chop her up into little pieces? Social climbers Lady Louise Smythson and the Mrs. Margaret Nash certainly believe so. In fact, Louise Smythson is so convinced that Cora has met a nasty end in the hand of Hawley that she contacts Detective Walter Dew of New Scotland Yard to report what she think is a crime.
Meanwhile, on the SS Montrose, Captain Henry Kendall becomes suspicious of two first class passengers, a Mr. Robinson and his son Edmund when he catches them in a romantic embrace. For Captain Kendall the hug of a man with another man, a love affair between a father and son, defies all logic and decency. Mr. Robinson is in fact, Hawley Crippen traveling with much-younger mistress, Ethel LeNeve disguised as a boy.
Desperate to start a new life in Canada, Hawley and Ethel are unaware that the police, led by inspector Dew are hot on their trail. Ethel is totally in love with Hawley seeing her hero as kind and gentle, a man of peace, perhaps everything that his wife is not. As Boyne charts Hawley and Ethel's trip on the Montrose, he switches back and forth, filling in the details Hawley's life, both the demands of marrying Cora and the rewards of finding a girl like Ethel.
The novel is a fascinating gambol through Edwardian England, the author peppering his tale with a huge supporting cast. Although most of these people immediately rush to judgment on Hawley, Boyne cleverly figures that it's a bit to soon to automatically assume the doctor's guilt. Obviously Hawley's journey from Canada, to America to London and then back to Canada is littered with regrets and poor choices, but it is the heaviness of his marriage to Cora that encumbers his present situation.
It is to Boyne's talent as a writer that he can portray Hawley Crippen as an extremely sympathetic character - he may have a certain blood lust, and he may be unable to communicate love, but is he really a murderer? One thing is for sure; he's certainly carried away by Ethel's passion and loyalty, perhaps even tricked by the dramatic emotional roller coaster ride, even by their efforts to escape across the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life. Mike Leonard July 06.
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