Foul Deeds Cambridge

Death and villainy always hold us in their grim but thrilling grip. In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths In and Around Cambridge the chill is brought close to home as each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in notorious cases of murder, deceit and pure malice that have marked the history of this famous university town. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted here, revealing Cambridge's sinister history from medieval times to the modern day. For this journey into a bloody, neglected aspect of the past, Glenda Goulden has selected over 20 notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. Recalled here are violent deaths that took place in the city's great colleges - the murder of a baby at Trinity, the shooting of a tutor at King's - as well as the public executions that were a feature of town life until recent times. The variety of cases covered is remarkable and revealing - poisonings by arsenic and strychnine; insanity driving a mother to drown her daughter; a father who shot his children, then himself; a fatal duel; the shooting of a gamekeeper; the boy strangled with a length of string. The personal dramas Glenda Goulden explores are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. Her grisly chronicle of the history Cambridge would prefer to forget will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.