Oh Damn The Chloroform!

London, 1886

The case of Adelaide Bartlett, tried for the poisoning of her husband Edwin, created a sensation at the time and remains compelling.

‘In the annals of true crime ... one of the strangest stories I ever encountered … It has many of the elements of a great film play. Packed with drama, it was a puzzling mystery and a most unusual love story.’ Alfred Hitchcock, 1953

At the centre of the Pimlico Mystery that shocked Victorian society lie enigmatic Adelaide, Edwin’s death from liquid chloroform, and her illicit relationship with a clergyman – or even a ménage à trois?

Hitchcock didn’t know the half of it; Adelaide’s family holds truths far stranger than most fiction.

Here, for the first time, their complex secrets are pieced together to reveal extraordinary events in Victorian social history. The lives of Adelaide’s outrageous father, beloved mother and relatives astonish: no stereotypes apply. With a twenty-first century feminist ‘take’ on their global travels and efforts to leave traumas behind by changing identity and starting afresh, Rose Storkey finds that more tragedies ensued in war, prisons and affairs of the heart ...

Through uncovering the truths in official documents and newspaper reports about their heritage, diversity, and struggles, Adelaide’s kin are brought to life and to rest together.

And some of you will bring good news of the family and their ancestors ...

© 2022 Brown Dog Books (Ebook): 9781839524776

Release date

Ebook: 25 May 2022