Victorian Crime

For Blood Among The Threads, we needed to recreate at least most of the shops along Wrexham's High Street in 1876, like this...   My favourite? J.F. Edisbury's pharmacy, at Number Three. He sells medications, ginger beers, and much more, including special “Wrexham Exhibition” souvenir versions of (a) his special pomade, Wrexham … [Read more...] about 1876, Wrexham’s High Street

There have been many memorable years in Wrexham's history.1463, and the great fire which destroyed so much of the town and the original church; 1643, another fire and Cromwell's troops occupy the town; 1715, and the terrible anti-Dissenter Sacheverell riots; 1857, and the town receives its borough charter; 1864, and Wrexham AFC formed. But then … [Read more...] about 1876, Wrexham’s “Year of Wonder”

Wrexham, 1876. Meet Alfred Neobard Palmer, an unlikely hero. “It was a death which had brought him here. Death by snake venom, of all things.” Palmer – and his more courageous sweetheart, young Ettie Francis. A series of accidental deaths which increasingly seem – well, more than simply accidental. Deaths luring Palmer and Ettie, slowly but surely, … [Read more...] about It’s Here – Blood Among the Threads

In 1876, most people would have been familiar with George W.M. Reynolds and I couldn't help including him in a couple of chapters in Blood Among The Threads. But I originally ran into George Reynolds about ten years ago. I was writing the first of my Spanish Civil War novels, The Assassin’s Mark, and I needed to find an appropriate real-life … [Read more...] about George W.M. Reynolds – Forgotten Rival to Charles Dickens