Crippen: A Novel of Murder

by John Boyne

Overview

An accomplished, intricately plotted novel, John Boyne's Crippen brilliantly reimagines the amazing escape attempt of one of history's most notorious killers and marks the outstanding American debut of one of Ireland's best young novelists.

July 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.

Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr. Crippen capable of murder, yet the doctor and his mistress have disappeared from London, and now a full-scale hunt for them has begun.

Across the Channel in Antwerp, the S.S. Montrose has just set off on its two-week voyage to North America. Slipping in among the first-class passengers is a Mr. John Robinson, accompanied by his teenage son, Edmund. The pair may be hoping for a quiet, private voyage, but in the close confines of a luxury ocean liner, anonymity is rare. And with others aboard looking for romance, or violence, or escape from their past in Europe, it will take more than just luck for the Robinsons to survive the voyage unnoticed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312343590
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/23/2007
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	429,185
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

John Boyne is the author of Crippen, The Thief of Time, Next of Kin, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, and the New York Times and internationally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne won two Irish Book Awards (the People’s Choice and the Children’s) for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and his novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Ireland's Sunday Business Post named him one of the forty people under forty in Ireland "likely to be the movers and shakers who will define the country's culture, politics, style and economics in 2005 and beyond." Crippen was nominated for the Sunday Independent Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award. He lives with his partner in Dublin.

Reading Group Guide

Historical Perspective

[newspaper clipping] A wireless message was received yesterday from Captain Kendall, of the steamer Montrose, which stated that the identity of the suspected passengers on the ship had been established "beyond a doubt". It will be remembered that two passengers who entered their names on embarking on the Montrose at Antwerp as "Mr. Robinson and son" were suspected as being Dr. Crippen and Miss LeNeve, for whom a world-wide search was being made, and as a result of a wireless message from the captain Inspector Dew, of Scotland Yard, was sent to overtake the suspects on the faster steamer Laurentic.

Want to hear the original telegraphic message left by Captain Kendall?

Visit
http://www.marconicalling.com
for sound clips from the Montrose, a brief history of wireless technology, and more.

Recommended Reading from John Boyne

Julian Barnes — Arthur & George
This engrossing novel gives a wonderful insight into the life of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through his real-life involvement in a case of legal injustice.

Peter Carey — Jack Maggs
Fans of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations will enjoy this reworking of the great novel from one of Australia's finest writers.

Caleb Carr — The Italian Secretary
A "new" Sherlock Holmes tale from the author of a series of atmospheric historical thrillers, including The Alienist.

William Golding — Rites of Passage / Close Quarters / Fire Down Below
Life on board a nineteenth-century ship traveling from England to Australia is vividly re-created in Golding's masterful trilogy.

Jane Harris — The Observations
Narrated by Bessy Buckley, a young servant girl in nineteenth-century Scotland, this is a wonderfully rich novel, with one of the best narrative voices of recent years.

Kazuo Ishiguro — Never Let Me Go
A futuristic idea placed in a contemporary setting; this highly disturbing novel is also a gripping page-turner.

Ian McEwan — Atonement
This novel about the damage that can be done by misunderstandings also offers a vivid account of wartime life.

David Mitchell — Cloud Atlas
A magical tour through centuries and characters, each of whom is connected in surprising ways. Mitchell is one of the most inventive of contemporary novelists.

Colm Tóibín — The Master
Ireland's finest writer turns his attention to the life of Henry James and presents us with a novel of such beauty that it rivals anything the master ever produced.

Sarah Waters — Fingersmith
One of the best historical novelists writing today, Sarah Waters's epic Victorian novel is rich with larger-than-life characters and a narrative that twists and turns until the end.

Reading Group Questions

1. In most novels, the outcome is unknown. Even though you know from the jacket description that a murder takes place, were you still able to anticipate, and enjoy, the unfolding of events? Discuss the narrative structure of the book, as well as its elements of suspense.

2. How did the early chapters about Crippen's coming-of-age affect your opinion of the would-be murderer? Did it make you sympathetic toward him? Or how, if at all, might it have compromised your objectivity toward the other characters in the book?

3. Discuss the significance of young Crippen's Scientific American magazine collection hidden beneath his mattress—and subsequently stolen by his mother. How influential was this episode to his development? Also, take a moment to talk about the Crippen family's beliefs about religion and science, and nature vs. nurture.

4. What are the themes of mortality and morality that resonate throughout Crippen's life? And in this novel?

5. Do you think there were similarities between Jezebel and Cora Crippen? Talk about the women in Crippen's life, from the outspoken Charlotte to his one true love, Ethel. What common traits did these characters possess? How were they different? And how, if at all, were they stronger than their male counterpart?

6. Crippen is set primarily in Great Britain and on the open seas. In what ways did life on the ship mirror early twentieth-century English society? Discuss the microcosm of the SS Montrose.

7. As for the characters aboard the Montrose: Was Crippen's "Mr. Robinson" a believable creation, in your opinion? What about Edmund? In one scene, while looking at himself in the mirror, Edmund acknowledges that people "often believed what was presented to them and rarely challenged it, which was how [his] deception had worked so convincingly thus far." Did the author convince you that the character of Edmund was "real"? Or did you see through the ruse right away?

8. How did you feel, after reading the Author's Note, once you realized that the events of the night on which Cora "met her bloody end" were "entirely a supposition" on John Boyne's part? Take a moment to talk about the nature of fact vs. fiction in Crippen.

9. A show of hands: Who, in the group, thinks that justice was served for Crippen? Who thinks that the case should have been considered a mistrial?

10. The circumstances of Crippen's capture relied on a "cutting–edge" technological device: the Marconi telegraph. Indeed, the case was the first in which a murder suspect was traced by means of wireless communication. Take a moment to discuss some of our more modern crime-solving techniques—as seen and popularized by such television programs as Law & Order and CSI—and ask yourselves: How far have we come? Has higher technology made the world a safer, or more dangerous, place? As a side note, talk about the ways in which crime is portrayed in the media, either as news or entertainment. Why are we so drawn to novels of murder in the first place?

Editorial Reviews

Had Charles Dickens been around to turn his talents to fictionalizing the classic Crippen murder case, the result might well have been close to this superb, multifaceted novel. ... Boyne brings all the characters in this drama to life, skillfully shifting perspectives and using flashbacks and flash-forwards. … Boyne is to be commended for his ability to alternate between Wodehousian humor and Edwardian noir.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A wonderfully evocative and detailed tale... Hugely enjoyable.” —Macavity’s (UK)

“Boyne is a skillful storyteller... genuinely thrilling.” —Sunday Tribune (UK)

“Boyne has the ability to create memorable characters, and to unfold their various stories in a tightly controlled narrative that shifts backwards and forwards, doling out enough information to keep readers on the edge of their metaphorical seats.” —The Irish Times

“Crippen has confirmed him as one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers.” —Irish Examiner

From the Publisher

The Irish writer John Boyne's grimly fascinating new novel is based on the Hawley Harvey Crippen murder case, which delighted and scandalized Londoners in 1910. Boyne starts with the basic facts…but he has altered the story to suit his dramatic needs and authorial whims. The result of his reinvention is a dark comedy that is supremely readable, always suspenseful, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and, finally, a monumental piece of misogyny. In Boyne's sardonic telling, Cora Crippen was a monster who richly deserved to die, and her long-suffering husband was a man more sinned against than sinning.
—The Washington Post

Patrick Anderson

Had Charles Dickens been around to turn his talents to fictionalizing the classic Crippen murder case, the result might well have been close to this superb, multifaceted novel from Irish author Boyne (The Thief of Time). The crime, a cause celebre in 1910, is probably best remembered for its denouement, which featured a race across the Atlantic by Scotland Yard Insp. Walter Dew in pursuit of his suspects aboard a cruise ship. Boyne brings all the characters in this drama to life, skillfully shifting perspectives and using flashbacks and flash-forwards. While his depiction of Hawley Crippen, a quack and self-proclaimed doctor with a disturbing taste for butchery, and his mistress is admittedly speculative, the author's imaginings of their inner lives and motivations are plausible. His version of the events of the night when Crippen's harridan wife met her gruesome death is convincing, despite the lack of historical support. Boyne is to be commended for his ability to alternate between Wodehousian humor and Edwardian noir. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"The truth always outs," states Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard. Or does it? Boyne (The Thief of Time) blends fact, fiction, and supposition in a suspenseful tale based on the 1910 transatlantic pursuit of Dr. Hawley Crippen for the murder and brutal dismemberment of his wife, Cora. The novel seamlessly blends several story lines, following Hawley and lover Ethel, disguised as father and son, as they board a cruise ship headed for Canada (and, they hope, freedom) while also tracing the life of Hawley and of those connected to him from his infancy to his execution for Cora's murder. Unlike historical perspectives that mention Crippen and Jack the Ripper in the same breath, Boyne's Crippen is more sympathetic, although certainly frightening at times. Despite having to capture such a long time frame, Boyne does an excellent job of condensing and elaborating exactly where and when he should. His characters are wonderfully memorable and engaging, and this book will satisfy patrons with a thirst for dramatized true-crime stories. Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections.-Susan O. Moritz, National Gallery of Art Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

An Irish novelist's copious recasting of the sensational Crippen murder hunt. Boyne's coarsely textured Edwardian page-turner teems with characters but reduces them to cartoonish dimensions. Crippen himself, American and mousey but with a fascination for dissection, emerges as the frustrated product of various pushy women, starting with his mother, whose religious obsession denied him the medical education he craved. After his first wife's death in a traffic accident, he takes up with a music-hall singer named Cora, who turns out to be as overbearing as his parent. Crippen's historical reputation was informed by not only Cora's murder and dismemberment in London but his flight back to North America aboard the SS Montrose, accompanied by his lover Ethel Le Neve. From these events Boyne plaits a triple-strand narrative that loops around in time, effectively leeching suspense from the murder. Instead, the novel's central focus falls on shipboard events, as suspicions mount regarding the identity of a certain John Robinson (Crippen, who shaved off his moustache) and his "son" Edmund, in fact Ethel in a suit and wig, setting aflutter the heart and possibly the latent lesbianism of another young passenger. A snobby matron (one of many in the story), a stiff captain, a brutish youth and other caricatures spend the 14-day voyage gossiping, leering and bristling. The captain, however, seeing through Edmund's disguise, famously takes advantage of the new-fangled Marconi Telegraph equipment onboard the ship to communicate his suspicions to the police. The plodding Inspector Dew races aboard another vessel to overtake the ship, and both Crippen and Le Neve are arrested off the coast of Canada.Boyne's light tone diffuses any seriousness and his late and highly improbable twist to the murder scenario transforms the story, already damaged by its loose attention to period style, into something resembling farce. Unconvincing.

Kirkus Reviews