Customer Reviews

Death at the Priory: Sex, Love, and Murder in Victorian England

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I read this book in England in October and considered it to be the book of the year. Ruddick's strength is his ability to take lots of disparate themes and thread them all together in a thrilling page-turner. On one level the book is a straightforward murder mystery - was Charles Bravo murdered by his wife, his wife's lover, his housekeeper or the stableman? The plot twists and turns like something from Patricia Cornwell or Elizabeth George. But then Ruddick begins sowing into the story other dimensions: he looks at the repressive nature of Victorian society, and particularly at the appalling way it treated its women. He reveals the shocking consequences of transgressing the moral codes of the time. He brings to life the atmosphere of London in 1876, the wealth and poverty, the strict social hierarchy, the conversations, appearances and personalites: his prose style is rich with the flavour of the period. Towards the end, the book changes gear and becomes a modern thriller, with Ruddick himself travelling the world in search of the proof he needs to unmask the killer. He knows who committed the crime - so do we - and the pleasure is in watching him slowly piece together the evidence. The last hundred pages were so compulsive I took the phone off the hook. Ultimately Ruddick succeeds in taking several genres - crime, romance, history - and weaving them into a masterpiece of suspense. This book was thrilling to read and will be selling for years...

In 1876 a young newlywed and Victorian aristocrat, Charles Bravo suffers a horrible death by a caustic poison in his London area mansion, the Priory. Murder! Despite four clear suspects, a Scotland Yard investigation, a highly publicized Coroner's inquest and 125 years of professional and amateur sleuthing, the murderer is not identified . . . until now!

James Ruddick solves an infamous riddle in "Death At The Priory". His book is divided into three intriguing parts. The events leading up to the murder and the inital inquest provides all the suspense and mystery of an Agatha Christie yarn. Ruddick skillfully weaves Coroner's inquest testimony into facinating dialog, adding color and spice to a brisk narration.

The second part enables the author to narrow the suspects and eventually identify the murderer by utilizing the wealth of research on the murder and a very creative perspective. The third part takes the reader through some of the dark secrets of Victorian wealth. In a society of double standards, even a wealthy woman becomes a prisoner within her own household. What can she do to stop being beaten, sodomized, robbed, verbally abused and nearly killed by an abusive husband? There are no help groups or laws to protect her.

In the end most of the charaters involved in "Death At The Priory" are poisoned by the notoriety. For the reader there is a great deal of satisfaction from this work and a greater appreciation that today's standards, no matter how flawed, are far more preferable than the good old days of Queen Victoria. Enjoy!

Interesting but not definitive.
It was a marriage of convenience that had turned inconvenient for someone. In 1875, Florence Ricardo married Charles Bravo. He was after her money and she was seeking to cleanse her name after a lurid sex scandal by marrying respectably. After less than six months of married life he was dead and a cloud of suspicion hung over his wife and the servants of her home.
A Coroner's inquest determined that the death was murder by poisoning. But it was never able to solve who had committed the crime. The chief suspects were: The widow who resented his attempt to control her money, the groom who had been fired by the new master of the house, the lady's maid who was next line for dismissal, or the elderly doctor who was Florence's ex-lover embittered about her marriage.
This unsolved Victorian mystery has been the subject of numerous speculations for over a century. Investigative reporter James Ruddick feels that he has finally cracked the case with damming new evidence. He goes beyond the source material used by many authors and travels the world over to contact descendants of the infamous participants in the original mystery. He weaves together a narrative that he feels is the definitive solution to the case.
This book is, in my opinion, a little too concerned with showing off the intrepid exploits of the author than it is with reasoning out the evidence. While his solution is very plausible this book is by no means going to be the final word on the case.

A well-written account of a marriage and a murder, gripping from the first page and packed with new information about this unusual case. The Gloria Mundi review is wrong - I checked her sources. The Yseult Bridges book does NOT cover the new information regarding Jamaica in Ruddick's account, and neither does the 1989 book, Murder at the Priory. Bridges refers to Jamaica but does not include the information Ruddick uncovered in his researches on that island - namely the extent of the estate; dates of occupation and so on. I thought Ms Mundi's review rather churlish and carping given the pleasure she obviously derived from Ruddick's book.

It is clear that the Bravo case will go on fascinating and intriguing generations to come. But this is a classic of its kind and by far the best work to date, encompassing broad social history and issues about marriage and womanhood that are both interesting and still relevant.

I just wish they'd make a movie of the case!

I don't read many 'true crime' books because it's so difficult for a writer to combine the amount of research required with a fast-paced readable style. You either get a racy, fast-moving story that's light on the research or an extensively researched story that plods along bogging down in details. James Ruddick, however, did all the research but has not bored the reader with unnecessary detail.

He also gives us just enough background to the story, especially the Victorian attitudes to women and their appointed "place" in society. It's enough to make you gnash your teeth, and certainly enough to make you sympathize with the women in the story.

I started this book with no great expectations, but I found myself reading it when I should have been occupied elsewhere. It's a treat to read a well researched, well written book like this one.

James Ruddick, in Death at the Priory (Sex, Love, and Murder in Victorian England) has served a slight, but tasty, treat. This short volume will fulfill all the expectations promised by the sub-title, which is more than enough. This is historical journalism (complete with the author's own prescence throughout the story) rather a work of history as it skims the surface of the Victorian world. It is,,though, the stuff of old fashioned English murder mysteries with its mysterious poisoning, clandestine affairs, competent and brooding lady companions, and, especially, its English country house (although set on the edge of London). The author covers all of this rich territory effectively and adds to this story with all of his fascinating new research. For lovers of murder mysteries or even simply a good tale, this will be sure to please.

This is an outstanding work of true crime and scholarship, and is, to my mind, the definitive work to date on the Bravo case. The author has read and examined every source he could find, and, after dismissing most of the secondary works on the case as inaccurate, returned to the primary sources, such as the Coroner's Inquest testimony and other source documents for much of the information in this book. This is a thoroughly researched work of true crime. Ruddick also places the crime firmly in the social and legal context of the era and explains the horrible position of a Victorian woman trapped in a bad marriage: there were no real options, and even separation was socially unacceptable and legally possible only if both parties agreed to it. Florence Bravo was between a rock and a hard place--married to an abusive, short-tempered money grubber [her first husband was an abusive alcoholic] who married her solely for her money.

I agree with 85 to 90% of the author's reasoning, though he does jump to a few conclusions. Ruddick also effectively demolishes two of the prevailing theories for Bravo's murder: the accidental overdose theory, i.e., Florence intented to put just a little antimony in Charles's water to sicken him and prevent his sexual advances, and the theory that Mrs. Cox poisoned Bravo for firing her.

There are a few "aren't I clever" moments, such as the author's demonstration in the Priory that the maid standing at the doorway of the room Bravo died in would have heard Bravo alleged confess of taking poison to Mrs. Cox. He seems surprised that the police didn't try this during their investigation, but about 25 pages previously he states that "ninety percent of the crimes that the Metropolitan Police investigated in their first fifty years were crimes against property." Ruddick also drops in facts several places in the book. For example, in a discussion of Mrs. Cox's behavior during Bravo's illness he describes her as "a trained night nurse" and "a woman trained in sickroom procedures." There is no mention of this training in the previous information about Mrs. Cox's background or previous employment. He also describes a quarrel during a trip to London on the day Bravo was poisoned and surmises that this was the straw that broke Florence's back, but I find no mention of this quarrel in the previous description of that day.

The book would have also benefitted from a chronology of events list. I found myself flipping back and forth looking for dates of specific events frequently and a one-page chronology would have been useful and a time-saver. The floor plan illustrations of the Priory printed on the endpapers are useless; they don't even tell what floor of the house they represent! Approximate room measurement would also have been nice.

These few faults do not detract from an outstanding book. Ruddick's theory of the crime is not new, but it is persuasively stated and covers all the facts of the case. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about one of true crime's classic puzzles.

It was called "one of the most mysterious poisoning cases ever recorded" by none other than Agatha Christie, and if you have not heard of the murder of Charles Bravo, you would have when it created a sensation in 1876. It has been investigated, reinvestigated, fictionalized, filmed, and solved by different experts who have shown the same sort of unflagging interest in the case as others have for that of Jack the Ripper. It is astonishing that although the crime was never solved and the murderer never punished, now 125 years after the case made its headlines, a plausible and new solution has been meticulously proposed by journalist and researcher James Ruddick. In _Death at the Priory: Sex, Love, and Murder in Victorian England_, not only do we get a good look at some of the dark underside of Victorian life, but also we learn that some traces of crime never fade, and effects of it may last for generations.

Ruddick's characters, especially Bravo's wife, Florence, are just as colorful as any from a novel of the period. The inquest after the excruciating death by poisoning of Charles Bravo was a cause célèbre. As in any good murder mystery, there were plenty of suspects, all of whom had motive to kill Bravo. Perhaps Bravo was drinking and suicidal and took the poison himself. George Griffiths, Florence's coachman, had made what could be interpreted as an actual threat against the man who fired him. Jane Cox, Florence's housekeeper and companion, had debts, children to care for, and a position with a mistress she truly cared about, and Bravo was trying to fire her, too. Florence could have done him in because life with him was intolerable for many reasons. Dr. Gully, her former lover, was suspected (by Agatha Christie, no less) of killing Bravo in revenge for stealing her away. Ruddick explains how the police system at the time was inadequate, only starting an investigation eight days after Bravo's death and failing to get details right, details that Ruddick himself has uncovered. Ruddick, in true whodunit fashion, shows how the evidence against each suspect is quite convincing, and then shows how other evidence exculpates each, until he circles around again to the one he has fingered.

It is probably wrong to think that this famous case has produced its last bit of speculation, but Ruddick's explanation is clever without being too clever. He has gone to The Priory and found evidence that the inquest should have investigated at the time. He has been to Jamaica to discover surprising facts about Jane Cox, and he has interviewed the descendants of those involved. He has discovered that some descendants could not bring themselves, even a century and a quarter after the scandal, to discuss the events with him, and that some of the families involved never recovered from the shame of it. His explanation satisfactorily fits into the Victorian atmosphere he has taken pains to describe. It is a suspenseful puzzle, showing the British world at the cusp of various social changes, and is irresistibly entertaining.

Death at the Priory is the true story of a murder. In 1876, a London lawyer named Charles Bravo was poisoned to death in his suburban home, the Priory. Suspects abounded--the man's wife, Florence; her ex-lover, Dr. James Gully; the housekeeper, Mrs. Cox; and the groom. But the case was never fully solved. In this book, James Ruddick offers a convincing solution to the mystery. The book is divided into two parts; the first covers the events of the murder and inquest, while in the second the author outlines his theory, narrowing the suspects down one by one.

This fewer-than-200-page book began in the late 1990s as a series of research papers, by an investigative journalist. As a result, the book is highly readable, with short, snappy chapters. But because the book is so brief, it really fails to even scratch the surface of what Victorian domestic life was really like. And the author makes a lot of generalizations about the Victorians ("theirs was a heavy drinking age"), without backing it up. In addition, he tries to force modern ideas upon Florence. The author assembled parts of the story through talking to descendants of the people that were involved; Ruddick actually seems offended by the fact that Gully's descendant (an MP, by the way) wouldn't talk to him. Lots of people are forthcoming with their family's history, but a lot of people, especially those in the public eye, would rather leave the past in the past.

But this is not by any stretch of the imagination a scholarly work, and the author does an admirable job of telling the Bravo story. I do think he backed up his theory remarkably well--and I have to say that after reading this book, I'm convinced by it. It's amazing that nobody in 1876, given the paucity of suspects, actually figured out what happened.

In the spring of 1876 Charles Bravo, a thirty-year-old barrister, was murdered at the Priory, his home in south London. His death was a particularly horrific one as the poison that was used, a massive dose of tartar emetic (a derivative of antimony), is a highly corrosive substance. In the three days it took Bravo to die, the poison "burned through the tissue lining his alimentary canal" and ate away at his large intestine until it had all but disintegrated. The police eventually determined that Bravo's death was not a straightforward case of suicide, but who among Bravo's household or acquaintances had the means and motive to kill him? There were numerous suspects: the coachman George Griffiths, whom Bravo had recently dismissed and who had publicly prophesied his former employer's death; Bravo's wife Florence, who had suffered two miscarriages already in their five-month marriage and whom Bravo was eager to impregnate again; Florence's former lover James Gully, the respected doctor who numbered among his patients Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale; Florence's female companion and mother figure, Jane Cox, whom Bravo had also threatened with dismissal. Despite the abundance of likely suspects, however, the Bravo murder investigation, one of the Victorian era's most infamous cases, was never solved.

Over the more than 120 years since Bravo's murder, the case has attracted considerable attention, with armchair detectives, among them Agatha Christie, attempting to puzzle out a solution to the unsolved crime. James Ruddick follows in this tradition, although he differs from his predecessors in using as evidence not only the records of the Coroner's inquest from which they derived information, but also original police records and the testimony of surviving relatives of the principals. Ruddick claims to have uncovered in his research evidence which has enabled him finally to expose the murderer. The evidence Ruddick offers is perhaps not as definitive as he suggests--while it does appear to exculpate one of the suspects, it does not prove the guilt of the person he fingers for the crime--but the author's reconstruction of the murder is indeed a persuasive one.

Death at the Priory is an example of popular history at its finest. It is fast-paced and suspenseful. The prose is highly readable. (My favorite sentence: "An unhappy woman with easy access to weedkiller had to be watched carefully.") And the story Ruddick tells--of the murder and its investigation, and of Florence's abusive first marriage and scandalous affair with James Gully--is inherently fascinating. There were occasions, however, when I wanted more information. What, for example, *was* that notorious Victorian malady "brain fever" that Florence was thought to be suffering from at one point? And what was so "famous" (as Ruddick refers to it) about the Bridge of Sighs that separated the men's quarters from the women's at Dr. Gully's clinic? (And is this bridge indeed famous, or has Ruddick transferred the epithet from the better known Bridge of Sighs in Venice?) I also had some questions, not necessarily damning, about Ruddick's reconstruction of the crime. (Why, for example, given his reconstruction, did Jane Cox go to such lengths to try to revive Charles Bravo after his collapse?) These might have been resolved at once had Ruddick been across the room from me while I was reading, but, strangely, he was not.

These minor issues aside, Ruddick's contribution to the literature on the Bravo cases makes excellent, nearly un-put-downable reading.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece