Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing
This story of a real-life Victorian mystery is a “meticulously researched true-crime account . . . its final revelation is a showstopper” (The New York Times).
 
In July 1864, Thomas Briggs was traveling home after visiting his niece and her husband for dinner. He boarded a first-class carriage on the 9:45 pm Hackney service of the North London railway. A short time later, two bank clerks entered the compartment and noticed blood pooled in the seat cushions and smeared all over the floor and windows. But there was no sign of Thomas Briggs. All that remained was his ivory-knobbed walking stick, his empty leather bag, and a bloodstained hat that, strangely, did not belong to Mr. Briggs.
 
The race to identify the killer and catch him as he fled on a boat to America was eagerly followed by the public on both sides of the Atlantic. The investigation and subsequent trial became a fixture in New York newspapers—and a frequent distraction from the Civil War that ravaged the nation. In Murder in the First-Class Carriage, Gold Dagger Award nominee Kate Colquhoun tells the gripping tale of a crime that shocked an era.
 
“A suspenseful, well-paced account of a baffling mystery.” —The Washington Post
 
“Deploying her skill as a historian, Colquhoun turns a single curious murder case into a fascinatingly quirky portrait of the underside of mid-Victorian London. I found it unputdownable.” —Daily Telegraph
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Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing
This story of a real-life Victorian mystery is a “meticulously researched true-crime account . . . its final revelation is a showstopper” (The New York Times).
 
In July 1864, Thomas Briggs was traveling home after visiting his niece and her husband for dinner. He boarded a first-class carriage on the 9:45 pm Hackney service of the North London railway. A short time later, two bank clerks entered the compartment and noticed blood pooled in the seat cushions and smeared all over the floor and windows. But there was no sign of Thomas Briggs. All that remained was his ivory-knobbed walking stick, his empty leather bag, and a bloodstained hat that, strangely, did not belong to Mr. Briggs.
 
The race to identify the killer and catch him as he fled on a boat to America was eagerly followed by the public on both sides of the Atlantic. The investigation and subsequent trial became a fixture in New York newspapers—and a frequent distraction from the Civil War that ravaged the nation. In Murder in the First-Class Carriage, Gold Dagger Award nominee Kate Colquhoun tells the gripping tale of a crime that shocked an era.
 
“A suspenseful, well-paced account of a baffling mystery.” —The Washington Post
 
“Deploying her skill as a historian, Colquhoun turns a single curious murder case into a fascinatingly quirky portrait of the underside of mid-Victorian London. I found it unputdownable.” —Daily Telegraph
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Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing

Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing

by Kate Colquhoun
Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing

Murder in the First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing

by Kate Colquhoun

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Overview

This story of a real-life Victorian mystery is a “meticulously researched true-crime account . . . its final revelation is a showstopper” (The New York Times).
 
In July 1864, Thomas Briggs was traveling home after visiting his niece and her husband for dinner. He boarded a first-class carriage on the 9:45 pm Hackney service of the North London railway. A short time later, two bank clerks entered the compartment and noticed blood pooled in the seat cushions and smeared all over the floor and windows. But there was no sign of Thomas Briggs. All that remained was his ivory-knobbed walking stick, his empty leather bag, and a bloodstained hat that, strangely, did not belong to Mr. Briggs.
 
The race to identify the killer and catch him as he fled on a boat to America was eagerly followed by the public on both sides of the Atlantic. The investigation and subsequent trial became a fixture in New York newspapers—and a frequent distraction from the Civil War that ravaged the nation. In Murder in the First-Class Carriage, Gold Dagger Award nominee Kate Colquhoun tells the gripping tale of a crime that shocked an era.
 
“A suspenseful, well-paced account of a baffling mystery.” —The Washington Post
 
“Deploying her skill as a historian, Colquhoun turns a single curious murder case into a fascinatingly quirky portrait of the underside of mid-Victorian London. I found it unputdownable.” —Daily Telegraph

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781590208861
Publisher: ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date: 09/01/2022
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 346
Sales rank: 846,405
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Kate Colquhoun is the author of Murder in the First-Class Carriage. Her previous works have been nominated for the Duff Cooper Prize, the Samuel Johnson Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger Award. She writes regularly for numerous publications, including the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Prologue: An Empty Railway Carriage 1

Book 1 City

1 All Human Life is Here 9

2 Saturday 9 July 1864 13

3 The Duckett's Canal Bridge 18

4 Ferreting for Detail 26

5 Morbid, Hideous and Delicious 32

6 The Smiling Face of a Murderer 37

7 Something to Astonish the Public 44

8 Improbable Hypotheses 53

9 Something to Tell 62

10 The Wind Blows Fair 70

11 Tuesday 19 July 1864 77

Book 2 Voyage

12 Flying from Justice 89

13 A Fabric Built of Straws 95

14 Ninety in the Shade 101

15 Who but a Madman? 107

16 City of Strangers 116

17 The Last Person in the World 123

18 No Slipshod Examination 133

19 Gathering Clouds 141

20 Turning Back 150

21 The Appearance of Guilt 158

22 A Very Public Ordeal 163

Book 3 Judgements

23 I've Come to Tell the Truth 173

24 First Judgement 180

25 A Pint of Meat and Vegetable Soup 188

26 The Great Müller Case 197

27 The Trial: First Day 203

28 The Trial: Second Day 214

29 The Trial: Third Day 227

30 The Shadow of Doubt 238

31 Condemned for a Thumbmark 247

32 City of Devils 256

33 St Sepulchre's Bell 262

Afterword: Certainty 271

People 283

Select Bibliography 287

Acknowledgements 297

Notes 299

Index 328

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher


"Colquhoun's work is an exquisite cautionary tale, as valuable today as it is telling of then." —Salon

"A suspenseful, well-paced account of a baffling mystery." —Washington Post

"Ms. Colquhoun's meticulously researched true-crime account, first published in England, is a tick-tock of the arrest and trial of a German tailor following a chase across the Atlantic…its final revelation is a showstopper." —New York Times

"Colquhoun's narrative will appeal to British, rail, and legal historians. She does an excellent job of describing the case and the times. Highly recommended." —Library Journal

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