Damn His Blood: Being a True and Detailed History of the Most Barbarous and Inhumane Murder at Oddingley and the Quick and Awful

Description

Pining for the next thing after Kate Summerscale's Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Mrs Robinsons Disgrace? Look no further. Mr Whicher's Victorian inheritor- this is pacy true crime at its very best - a gripping read with a twist in the tale on a story that has never been told before. This is Squire Haggard meets Midsomer Murders. The brutal murder of the Reverend George Parker in the rural village of Oddingley on Midsummer's Day in 1806 - shot and beaten to death, his body set on fire and left smouldering in his own glebe field - gripped everyone from the Home Secretary in London to newspapermen across the country. It was a strange and stubborn case. The investigation lasted twenty-four years and involved inquests, judges and coroners, each more determined than the last to solve Oddingley's most gruesome crime - or crimes, as it turned out. With a cast of characters straight out of Hardy, Damn His Blood is a nail-biting true story of brutality, greed and ruthlessness which brings an elusive society vividly back to life.

Peter Moore is a writer, journalist and lecturer. He teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford. His debut, Damn His Blood, reconstructed a rural murder in 1806. His second, The Weather Experiment, traced early efforts to forecast the weather. His latest book, Endeavour, was a multiple book of the year and a Sunday Times bestseller. He presents a history podcast called Travels Through Time.

Written in the vein of Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, Moore's story is in many ways more compelling * Herald * Squire Haggard meets Midsomer Murders * Waterstones.com * A nail-biter * Daily Mail * A terrific read. First class research, beautifully written, a true thriller about an extraordinary story -- Edwina Currie The clever thing is how deftly Peter Moore tells his story. At the time, the murders were a sensation so there are plenty of historical documents, but he has arranged the details in a way that shows a very canny eye for story-telling -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *