The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable: A True Tale of Passion, Poison and Pursuit

by Carol Baxter

Overview

John Tawell was a sincere Quaker but a sinning one. Convicted of forgery, he was transported to Sydney, where he opened Australia’s first retail pharmacy and made a fortune. When he returned home to England after fifteen years, he thought he would be welcomed; instead he was shunned.

Then on New Year’s Day 1845 Tawell boarded the 7:42 pm train to London Paddington. Soon, men arrived chasing a suspected murderer – but the 7:42 had departed. The Great Western Railway was experimenting with a new-fangled device, the electric telegraph, so a message was sent: a ‘KWAKER’ man was on the run. The trail became a sensation, involving no apparent weapon, much innuendo, and a pious man desperate to save his reputation – and would usher in the modern communication age.

Told with narrative verve and rich in historical research, this is a delicious true tale of murder and scientific revolution in Victorian England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780742441
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	09/01/2013
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Carol Baxter is the prize-winning author of three popular histories with a criminal bent – An Irresistible Temptation, Breaking the Bank and Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady – all of which have been published to critical acclaim in her native Australia. Previously, she was General Editor of the Biographical Database of Australia and, before that, Project Officer of the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record, in which roles she edited many records relating to convicts transported to Australia to serve out their sentences. These helped her to discover the subjects for her tales of true crime. She is a Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists and an adjunct lecturer at the University of New England (NSW). A full-time writer and speaker, she lives in Sydney.

Editorial Reviews

10/15/2013
Baxter's (An Irresistible Temptation: The True Story of Jane New and a Colonial Scandal) latest historical title reads like a novel. It's not a strictly academic work but rather a fascinating glimpse into a point in time in England's history, when things were about to change. The "electric constable" referred to is the electric telegraph, which made it possible for the suspect in this bizarre and scandalous murder case to be apprehended—the first time in the nation's history that this method was successful in such a case. Frankly, the telegraph plays a minor role here but does allow a well-researched and well-written story to be told about a dodgy Quaker, his former servant/mistress, his wife, a few vaguely corrupt scientists, and a vial of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide). Baxter's research, while not footnoted, appears thorough and dogged, and she doesn't seem inclined to invent facts or conjecture about the case if facts are unknown. If this book lacks anything, it would be explanations of the intricacies of the early 19th-century British legal system, which contains terms and players unfamiliar to modern American audiences. This title is easily readable, interesting, and enjoyable, especially when one compares the techniques of the 1840s chemists and doctors with today's television and real-life forensic scientists. VERDICT Recommended for true crime and historical crime buffs, those interested in early forensic science, and general readers.—Amelia Osterud, Carroll Univ. Lib., Waukesha, WI

Library Journal

08/19/2013
Fans of Erik Larson’s true-crime thrillers will be pleased by this gripping account that presents a tipping point in the public acceptance of the telegraph: its use in 1845 to alert the authorities in London that a murder suspect had boarded a train headed there. With a novelist’s flair for drama, using details that were painstakingly extracted from the historical record, Australian popular historian Baxter (An Irresistible Temptation) recreates the life of suspect John Tawell, a Quaker who had been transported for forgery, the events leading up to his apprehension on suspicion of having poisoned Sarah Hart, and his prosecution. Along the way, the story takes several unexpected twists, and Baxter does a stellar job of integrating details about the nascent forensic science of the time, questions about the role of expert witnesses in jury trials, and the insatiable public hunger for salacious details about the case. There are occasional rhetorical excesses (“Still, doubt was pushing his foot through the door he had just opened”), but most of the prose is understated and precise. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

'Meticulously researched and thoroughly engrossing.'

Fiona Rule

'Reading this account of a real-life crime in 1845 is an experience close to time travel. Through impressive research and unshowy prose, Baxter whisks us back to the start of the modern age... Totally irresistible.'

Independent Whig.

'A masterful reconstruction of a forgotten story.'

Siân Rees

'As lively and readable as a crime novel. Normally, that would be good enough; but this is a book of two halves — its unique selling point is the invention of the telegraph'

The Times

'A fascinating history, mystery and portrait of a complex contradictory man.'

Daily Mail

‘Fascinating… told by Carol Baxter like a novel, with plenty of tension’

Independent on Sunday

'A masterful reconstruction of a forgotten story.'

Siân Rees

"Fans of Erik Larson's true-crime thrillers will be pleased by this gripping account...With a novelist's flair for drama, using details that were painstakingly extracted from the historical record, Australian popular historian Baxter recreates the life of suspect John Tawell. Baxter does a stellar job of integrating details about the nascent forensic science of the time, questions about the role of expert witnesses in jury trials, and the insatiable public hunger for salacious details about the case." — Publishers Weekly

"Australian historian Carol Baxter melds true crime and science in the gripping The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable. . . Baxter's accounts of the telegraph's technology, the prevailing cultural climate regarding murder and poisonings, contemporary forensic methods and Tawell's personal history are all worthy of an engrossing thriller. . . Expertly told...a captivating accomplishment in nonfiction" - Shelf Awareness

"In an echo of Magwitch, the convicted criminal who returned from Australia as a rich man in Great Expectations, so John Tawell, a Quaker and convicted forger transported to Sydney where he made a fortune as a retail pharmacist, returned to England where he was a social outcast…. As lively and readable as a crime novel." — The Times (London)

"Reading this account of a real-life crime in 1845 is an experience close to time travel. Through impressive research and unshowy prose, Baxter whisks us back to the start of the modern age… Totally irresistible." — Independent

"Baxter has pieced together a fascinating history, mystery and portrait of a complex contradictory man, whose crime sat uneasily alongside his religion and desire for respectability." — Daily Mail

"The popularity of real-life Victorian murder cases continues unabated, [and] this has the added interest of new technology in the shape of the 'electric telegraph' system playing an actual part in the apprehending of a suspect." — The Herald (Scotland)

"A masterful reconstruction of a forgotten story." - Sian Rees, bestselling author of The Floating Brothel and The Ship Thieves

"Carol Baxter's vivid account of a Victorian murder and its aftermath is meticulously researched and thoroughly engrossing. I recommend it to anyone interested in the murkier side of life in the nineteenth century." - Fiona Rule, author of The Worst Street in London

Praise for Carol Baxter:
“ An Irresistible Temptation is just that — an irresistible mix of intrigue, scandal, crime, punishment tinged with romance and a dash of social history. What's more, this is not a work of fiction . . . Informative and entertaining.” — Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society

“A tale of theft, seduction, incarceration, escape, corruption and political intrigue… The story is told in a punch, accessible style with a fine eye for the complex motivations, both political and personal, of the characters … Compelling.” — Sydney Morning Herald on An Irresistible Temptation

“Baxter's book reads like a novel as she peels back layers of long unchallenged folk tales.” — Newcastle Herald on Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady

“A great read.” — Marie Claire on Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady

From the Publisher