_Story of a Murder_ is a grand experiment in subverting a famous history. It is a feminist retelling of the historical true-crime story of infamous wife-murderer Dr Crippen in Edwardian England, brought to justice by an extraordinary group of music hall women.
With a galloping narrative at its centre, it explores the late Victorian and Edwardian era, class aspiration, the transatlantic world and an incredible period of social revolution for women.
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious musichall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies' Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.
They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle's husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen's typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve - was she really just 'an innocent young girl' in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?
In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard - the women.
HALLIE RUBENHOLD is the \#1 _Sunday Times_ bestselling and Baillie Gifford prize-winning author of _The Five, the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper_. A renowned social historian whose expertise lies in revealing stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history, she is the author of _The Covent Garden Ladies_ which was the inspiration behind BBC TV's 'Harlots'. Her biographical work, _Lady Worsley's Whim,_ was dramatized by the BBC as 'The Scandalous Lady W'. Her most recent work of non-fiction, _Story of a Murder_, _the wives, the mistress and Dr Crippen_, has been optioned for TV. She has also written two acclaimed novels _Mistress of My Fate_ and _The French Lesson_ which give voice to the women written out by eighteenth-century literature_._ She lives in London with her husband. Meet her @HallieRubenhold