Overview

A delectable true-crime story of scandal and murder at America's most celebrated university On November 23, 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city's richest men vanished. Dr. George Parkman, a Brahmin who owned much of Boston's West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbor―some leads put Parkman at sea or in Manhattan―but a Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had never even left the Medical School building. His shocking discovery engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, Harvard's professor of chemistry. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbing, and dismemberment, it became a landmark in the use of medical forensics. Rich in characters and atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America's greatest murder mysteries.

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9781538558171

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Reviews

""A nimble writer, the author skillfully sets the stage for this nineteenth-century murder mystery...A vivid true-crime tale from a fascinating bygone era."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""Mesmerizing...A fine mixture of true crime, historical exposition, and class conflict in mid-nineteenth-century American history."" -- ""Publishers Weekly""

Author Information

Paul Collins is an author specializing in science writing, magazine writing, history, and memoir; his books have appeared in a dozen languages. He is the recipient of an Oregon Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Portland State University. Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

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