Jane RobinsCritiques

another shake and repeat, it's getting hard to tell these books apart :(

Jane Robins' debut, White Bodies, is a mesmerizing mystery with a very suspenseful storyline.

Twin sisters Tilda and Callie Farrow are as different as night and day both in looks and temperament. Tilda is quite beautiful, outgoing and popular whereas Callie is quiet, shy and socially awkward. Tilda's light shines brightly and her acting career is currently on the upswing. Callie enjoys her job working in a bookstore where she is comfortable discussing books with regular customers. Despite their differences, Tilda and Callie talk daily and get together once a month for movie night.

Although Callie enjoys hanging out with her sister, she is a little taken aback when Tilda begins frequently inviting her to spend time with her and her new boyfriend Felix Nordberg. Callie is initially impressed with Felix's ability to rein in her somewhat flighty sister but after witnessing a couple of troubling incidents, she becomes convinced that Tilda is the victim of domestic violence. When Tilda brushes off her concerns, Callie joins an on-line support for advice and after she befriends two women on the forum, she has to decide just how far will she go to protect her sister.

Callie is devoted to her sister so it is not any surprise that she is a little worried about some of her disturbing observations. With a long history of trying to protect Tilda from her own frailties and any type of harm from the people around her, she immediately begins compiling extensive notes in which she documents practically everything about her sister and Felix. Callie soon comes across as obsessed as she goes to extreme lengths to gather information about Felix and his relationship with Tilda.

As Tilda begins pulling away from her sister, Callie begins to heavily rely on two friends she has made on the domestic abuse forum. After tragedy strikes, one of the women she has befriended proposes a rather extreme plan but will Callie agree to this outrageous scheme? When Felix unexpectedly dies, Callie is under unbearable pressure to act on her online friend's behalf, but can she take such a drastic measure?

Fast-paced and engrossing, White Bodies is an intriguing mystery that is impossible to put down. With a meticulously crafted storyline, an increasingly unreliable narrator and clever plot twists, Jane Robins brings the novel to a completely unexpected but satisfying conclusion. A brilliant debut that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend to fans of the genre.

I really enjoyed this well written crime/family drama.
The ending was slightly disappointing, I loved Callie and would love to meet her in another book

I received an ARC of this book, and I thank Touchstone for that. I was very excited to read this.

This went in a direction I wasn't expecting. Holy shit. I had some theories and the actual ending was not one I guessed.

I really liked this. It's easy to read and interesting and just the right amount of 'wtf' moments.

The story is told through Callie's point of view...which was really a plus for the book...especially since so many domestic thrillers are told through the perspective of the battered spouse or abusive partner. Callie is worried about her twin enough to go out of her way to try to find a way to help her...even if she didn't want it. The problem was with the characters who were all so unlikable that I had trouble choosing who to hope came out ahead. I know some would say that's easy...Tilda who was the abused spouse...but Tllda seemed to delight in tormenting Felix thus making herself a victim. It was an easy read that flowed very smoothly but hit another bump with an odd, unexpected ending that didn't fit well with the previous events of the story.

Callie Farrow’s actress-sister, Tilda, is in love with Felix, a man Callie believes is abusing her sister. Hoping for a better understanding of the hold Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an internet support group for women in abusive or controlling relationships. But as she becomes more and more involved with some of the women in the group, she soon finds herself in an untenable position. Will Callie find a way out of her problems with the group? And exactly what is the truth about the relationship between Tilda and Felix?

There’s nothing complex or compelling about either twin in this eerie narrative; both are completely unlikable and each, in her own way, is twisted and demented. Desperate and neurotic, Cassie’s obsessiveness is cringeworthy. Narcissistic Tilda has her own warped agenda. As with so many other “twin tales,” the central characters in this dark, disagreeable story are “totally opposite” twins. The turning of twinness into the ludicrous repulsiveness found in these pages serves no particular purpose other than to offend any twins who happen upon this relentlessly unpalatable tale.

Fortunately, the brisk pacing of this creepy narrative makes it a quick read. However, unexpected reveals lead to a rather unsatisfactory denouement while the constant inclusion of a particularly offensive expletive in almost every conversation quickly becomes vexatious and has the unfortunate tendency of offending the reader even further.

Disappointingly obvious who the villain was - but I did keep reading to see how exactly the crime was done. Perhaps that was the author's intent? I do plan to read more from this author - the writing itself was very well done, taught, exciting and the pacing perfect. I am still contemplating giving this four stars - we'll see how it sticks with me in the next few days.

(A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)

2.7 Out Of 5 STARS for White Bodies by Jane Robins

Something about White Bodies just rubbed me the wrong way, maybe it's the narrator's voice/accent that got to me or the strangely weird thing that the MC did with her sister's hair, teeth, and other personal items (it's freakishly weird) or most likely it was both of those. I just couldn't care about these characters or what befell them. That twist at the end, was deviously clever, though. It was the knowledge that there was going to be a serious twist at the end that kept me listening because I really wanted to DNF this.

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~MY RATING~
2.7/5 STARS - GRADE=C-
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~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~
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Plot~ 2.7/5
Main Characters~ 2.3/5
Secondary Characters~ 2.5/5
The Feels~ 2/5
Pacing~ 2.5/5
Addictiveness~ 2/5
Theme or Tone~ 2/5
Flow (Writing Style)~ 3/5
Backdrop (World Building)~ 3/5
Ending~ 3.2/5 Cliffhanger~ Nope.
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Book Cover~ Meh…not overly compelling.
Narration~ done by Camilla Arfwedson…My Grade=C-
Setting~ London, England
Source~ Audiobook (Library)
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This is a fun read that puts a 21st century twist on the premise of the famous 1951 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train. That’s the one where two strangers fall into conversation and agree to murder a person of the other’s choosing. They convince themselves that, since there is nothing to connect murderer and victim, the crimes will be easy to get away with. Right.
But, how would you effect such an anonymous encounter today? Where would you look for such a willing accomplice? The Internet, of course! “The internet is where psychos find each other,” says character Tilda. And Robins makes good use of the strengths and weaknesses of social media in crafting her tale.
The protagonist in this London-based domestic thriller is Callie—a bit socially awkward, insecure about her looks (and everything else), a librarian. The relationship between her and her glamorous twin sister Tilda is explored in both the current time and a succession of flashbacks. Callie increasingly believes that “the perfect man” Tilda has become involved with—the wealthy, handsome, larger-than-life and more than a bit obsessive-compulsive American, Felix Nordberg—is actually quite dangerous.
Desperate to help Tilda, Callie becomes involved with a website called controllingmen.com, where all the classic signs of a relationship headed toward abuse are spelled out, just the way she sees them in Tilda and Felix’s relationship.
But Tilda dismisses her sister’s concerns, and you’ll understand Callie’s bafflement at how to proceed without creating a rift between them. At times you may want to wring her neck for the way she can’t stop herself from blurting out her suspicions. Moreover, she can’t seem to see how her obsession with Tilda and Felix is interfering with her own life.
We know from the first pages that Felix is dead. But was he murdered? The medical examiner says he died from natural causes. Although I thought I understood how Felix died, I hadn’t reckoned with Jane Robins’s diabolical imagination. I had to reread some of the last bits to be sure I understood the extent of the duplicity. That sense of something happening behind the scenes that I hadn’t quite grasped really kept the pages turning.
Robins has written several true-crime and non-fiction books and has a straightforward style that is a nice counterpoint to the emotions rampaging through Callie, and every one of the main characters in White Bodies is believable.
As a side note, a disadvantage to book reviewing is the “promotional cover.” The White Bodies review copy bore a temporary cover with a quote in all-capital scarlet letters, “Everyone wants someone murdered.” Not the kind of thing you can put on an empty train seat beside you for a stranger to see.

2.5 White Bodies is Jane Robins's first fiction work.

Callie and Tilda are twin sisters, but very different in their personality and lives. Callie is an outgoing actress, married to Felix. Tilda is reserved and single. When Tilda begins to notice changes in Callie's behaviour, appearance and demeanor - not working, not eating, with bruises on her body, she is sure it is Felix's doing as he has a temper. In an attempt to understand what might be happening to her sister, Tilda goes online and joins a support group for abuse victims and their friends and families. She makes the acquaintance of a woman who agrees to take things a step further....think Strangers on a Train.

I loved Robins's premise - there are so many possibilities. Especially with twins. But the focus of White Bodies is more on relationships - that between the sisters takes center stage.

In an interview, Robins uses the words intense, eccentric and twisty to describe White Bodies. Its the eccentric that stands out for me. I found the behaviour of both sisters decidedly odd and frankly quite off putting early on. Callie eats her sister's hair and drinks her urine. Yes, she eats things belonging to others to feel close to them. Uh huh. Gagworthy for me. Tilda is not the only one with mental issues. We do get some background into the sisters' past with background chapters. But for me, there were no likable characters in White Bodies.

Yes, there's a nice twisty bit at the end, but overall White Bodies was a miss for me.

I chose to listen to White Bodies. The reader was Camilla Arfwedson. Her performance was excellent, as always. Her voice is clear, well enunciated and pleasant to listen to. She interprets Robins' work well.½

This book starts off by describing the death of Felix. I was hooked right away. I then met the wife, Tilda, and her younger sister Callie. Callie and Tilda had a complex relationship that carried on into adulthood. Callie found herself obsessed with her sister's life - as an aspiring actress and half of the perfect couple. Callie became so obsessed that she met other women online who were also being abused. However, not everything is as it seems, and when Callie finally discovers the truth, others have died, something Callie learns to live with. The action and suspense built up, then crashed. I was not happy with the ending.

Two strange sisters, twins, Tilda supposedly the brilliant, intense one. Callie, enthralled with her twin, unusual habits, to get closer to understanding her, wanting to be her, consume her essense. In my opinion both of these girls could have used mental health intervention when they were younger. Now grown, Tilda is said to be a well known actress, in a new relationship with a fabulous man. Callie, just biding time, still hanging on her sisters coattails, but now worried about her too, concerned about the controlling nature of her sisters new man. Secrets, schemes, websites and in the end a death.

I sometimes think I expect too much of these psychological thrillers. Yes, this was twisty, and yes there are surprises, but after the middle of the book I could see where this was going. It was a easy story to get caught up in, the pace quick with constant revelations, detours, making me wonder if I was right. The sisters though, seemed one dimensional, really wish they had been fleshed out more, deeper. I did like this in a weird way, but the ending was a let down, it was unsurprising by that point, especially with everything that had gone before. A different ending might have provided the wow factor I felt this was missing.

A sisters read and as always interesting reading everyone's different views.

ARC from Netgalley.

Oh my God, White Bodies was one of the most thrilling and suspenseful books I've read in a while.

I found Callie to be interesting and caring, but more often than not she came off as a creepy stalker who's obsessed with her twin sister.

The plotline was absolutely amazing, and the author kept the suspense building till the end, and it was a goosebumps raising experience.

White Bodies was an unputdownable read and I finished it in approximately 5 hours, I just HAD to know what happens.

So yeah, all in all, White Bodies was a perfect novel that had me on the edge all through it. Till the end.

White Bodies by Jane Robins is a 2017 Touchstone publication.

Unconventional, incongruous, and macabre-

Callie and Tilda are twins, but are polar opposites, in appearance and personality. Tilda, an actress, is on the cusp of stardom, while Callie stands in the shadows, living a quiet life as a bookstore clerk.

But, when Tilda becomes involved with Felix, Callie begins to worry that Tilda is withdrawing, losing weight, maybe abusing herself or being abused by Felix, putting her career in jeopardy, all due to Felix’s controlling obsessive compulsiveness.

Callie joins an online support group for women who are trying to extricate themselves from abusive and controlling relationships. She even participates in chat room conversations hoping to find a way to understand the hold Felix has over her sister and to seek help in finding a way to rescue Tilda.

In the meantime, Callie keeps tabs on Tilda, looking for signs of abuse or clues to her sister’s mental state, when all the while she fails to see the irony in her own increasing obsession with Tilda.

The further entangled she becomes with the online support group, the deeper her obsession grows until she finds herself embroiled in their plans to free those trapped in controlling relationships by any means necessary.

This book is messed up. Really, really messed up. Callie relates the series of events from her own first person narrative, so we see things from her perspective and only through her eyes.

The insight comes from the background information provided about the twins’ upbringing and the type of bond they formed early in life. Callie’s unusual methods of feeling close to Tilda are one of the most troubling aspects of the book, and one you won't forget anytime soon.

I thought the story was highly imaginative, with a nice nod to ‘Strangers on a Train’, a setup that is as effective today as it was back then. The creation of such a fraught and unsettling atmosphere is very well done and even has a slight noir quality to it that I really liked, but also had an edgy type of dark humor, that may have simply been in my imagination, but I honestly found myself delighted by some of the twists, even if they were mostly untenable.

Tensions rose on several fronts, and all them are beyond twisted. Obsession is definitely the word of the day in this book and it can come in many different forms, especially when it comes to family bonds, which can be the most complex of all relationships, perhaps more so with sisters, who can often have thorny connections, but Cassie and Tilda take that to an entirely new level.

The novel kept me entranced and fascinated, but also kept me off balance, and on my toes. No reading on auto-pilot.

But as the book wound around to its final moments, the pacing began to slow down, causing me to let down my defenses a little, but, beware of that lull. There is still one final revelation. Now, normally, I love one last turn of the screw, but this one nearly derailed the entire book. Seasoned readers of psychological thrillers will have to stifle a groan, because everything good that went before fell into a predictable trap, resulting in an epic fail.

Despite that one big faux pas, and overdoing it in a few spots, this is an admirable fiction debut from an author accustomed to writing historical non-fiction. There were many elements I liked about the story, which mostly made up for the missteps. So, although it is a little rough around the edges, it is still worth checking out, especially if you enjoy psychological thrillers.

An intriguing story about twins Callie and Tilda are sisters and twins. They could not be more different. When Callie assumes Tilda is marrying a domineering, wife abuser she takes action by joining an online support groups for victims of abuse and their friends. There things turn into "Stranger on a Train" with dire consequences. A good read that will keep the reader guessing. What's up with the title?? - Has nothing to do with the book.

When I started reading this I noticed a blurb that it was being compared to Strangers on a Train and I was super bummed. I thought the plot line was completely blown. But I was wrong. This book is super twisty and really kept me guessing throughout to figure out who was telling the truth and who was lying. It's one of those books that makes you constantly second guess yourself, where you are going back and re-reading sections to make sure you didn't miss something or you are realizing you made assumptions that weren't accurate at all. That's one of my favorite reads. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple, a financier and fresh-faced actress, hopelessly in love with each other. When the curtains are drawn and their alone together, the perfect façade breaks and reveals an oddity and violent passion lurking at the heart of the relationship. Felix seems to be obsessed with cleanliness, going as far as cling wrapping the dishes. Tilda appears to be disappearing both professionally and physically. The only person seemingly aware of Felix’s controlling hold on Tilda is her twin sister, Callie, who watches and wishes to help her sister escape.

Callie has always been the behind-the-scenes sister, the one who watches as Tilda takes the limelight. Since childhood Callie has had an intense obsession with her twin, often going to extremes to feel close to her. Worried that she will lose her sister to this violent man, Callie turns her attentions to the internet and finds a support group for victims of abuse and their friends. On this site Callie meets two women who attempt to help her save Tilda. Callie’s behavior becomes intense when she is with Tilda and Felix as she desperately attempts to intervene, but ends up being pushed further and further out of their lives. As life around Callie spirals out of control and Felix is mysteriously found dead, she must determine what is fact and what is fiction.

Jane Robbins creates an amazing work of suspense, intrigue, and family relationship in WHITE BODIES. The relationship between Callie and Tilda forms the heart of the novel, leaving the reader to judge who needs who more. Callie verges on the edge of crazy with her obsession for Tilda, often leading her to engage in bizarre activities to feel as close as possible to her. Tilda isn’t far from the crazy line with her intense and dramatic behavior throughout her life. These traits both strengthen and harm the relationship between these twins.

Robbins’ homage to Stranger on a Train builds a stage for a brilliant reveal at the end of WHITE BODIES. While I had suspicions along the way, because let’s be serious, these characters are a bit off key, I was left in shock and awe with the ending. My emotions went on a roller coaster of frustration, pity, and downright repulsion as I flew through the short chapters. WHITE BODIES is a book any reader will find hard to put down as you can’t help wanting to know what happens next and just how far someone will go to do what they believe is right.

Callie and Tilda are twins, though they couldn’t be more different. Tilda is beautiful, outgoing, and a successful actress. Callie is quiet and introverted, and worships the ground her sister walks on. When Tilda becomes involved with successful stockbroker Felix, Callie is at first happy that her sister has found someone so perfect. But after Tilda starts behaving oddly, and displaying mysterious bruises, Callie begins to worry that Felix is dangerous. Getting drawn into an internet site for abused women, Callie becomes more and more obsessed with revealing the truth about Felix. But as the foundations of Callie’s concern begin to shift and crumble, can her perceptions be trusted?

I am now in full-fledged psychological thriller burnout. I have to admit that I feel a bit more justified in my feelings on the subject after reading Emily Martin’s article on Bookriot entitled “Why We Should Stop Searching for the Next Gone Girl” (warning: spoilers for Gone Girls, The Couple Next Door, and The Girl on the Train). Martin makes the point that in the rush to achieve to runaway success Gillian Flynn did with Gone Girl, folks have been cranking out similar stories, each trying on their own brand of mental illness to up the suspense. However, as much as Amy Dunne was a psychopathic bitch, her flaws and intelligence made her a complex and compelling (if horrible) character. As Emily Martin points out in her article, Flynn was able to give us a leading female character who was pretty much unlikeable in every way.

The inevitable consequence of Flynn’s success, according to Martin

. . . is a new and equally problematic female character archetype – the unwieldy off-the-rails woman. This woman is not any more complicated than the “strong female character.” Her craziness is not a personality, and her bouts of insanity that not even she can control allow for absolutely any twist possible that the writer wants to imagine.
And with this, I can finally put my finger on what has been bugging me about this genre recently. None of the recent protagonists of these books have been more complex than their mental illness. And while our current protagonist, Callie, is probably the weirdest I’ve seen yet, simply being crazy does not a compelling character make.

The books also by necessity rely heavily on inevitable plot twist(s), and this one is no exception. The problem is, that while reading these books (much like watching an M. Night Shyamalan movie) we are looking into every crevice and casually uttered word for said twist. With that amount of scrutiny, any surprises the plot might hold are going to be guessed long before the climax; if not from the evidence at hand, then simply by trying to think of ways to make the ending more shocking.

I apologize that this review is less about White Bodies specifically and more about the genre as a whole, but the field is crowded at the moment, and it takes a truly remarkable talent to separate oneself from the pack. White Bodies, unfortunately, does not do this. Callie is simply one more protagonist who’s mental illness is used to facilitate contortions of the plot.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems. Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms. Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies—or was he murdered?

It was a slower starter than I had thought it would be and the skipping backward and forward in ten year intervals was a bit off setting. However the psychologically, sophisticated tale more than compensated for it. The sisters’ relationship is undeniably the most intriguing part of the story. Had this been a character study of the obsessive, bordering on fanatical, relationship between twin sisters it would be a five star novel. In spite of the fact that I read a book for the mystery, suspense and the crime.... I have to say that in this case it's unfortunately the crime that bogs down the story. Anyone that is bothered by reading about domestic violence may want to skip this one entirely.

Started out a little slow, but for the most part this book had me captivated; I couldn't stop flipping the pages of this book! The build-up for the plot was nice, the character development was very interesting too. The plot twists definitely caught me off guard. Highly recommended!

There's no better way to describe this book than dark, twisted, and creepy. I actually physically cringed while reading more than a few times. I read a lot of dark stories, and it's rare for me to have that reaction. Don't get me wrong: this story isn't graphic at all. The disturbing parts are more psychological. Just shy of 300 pages, it's easy to devour in a day... and if you have time, you probably will. I could hardly put it down. Suspense, twins, abuse, jealousy... it sounds like several books I've read recently, and if you enjoy psychological thrillers like I do, it probably sounds familiar to you too... but trust me, this one is different.

Tilda and Callie have always had a bit of an odd relationship. Tilda is beautiful, has a flair for the dramatic, blessed with confidence. She's the actress that despite not putting out new work in awhile, gets recognized on the street. Callie is the sister who blends in. She works at a bookshop, doesn't have a love life to speak of, and has a hard time making new friends. She's very different from her charming, enigmatic sister.

Tilda begins to change when she starts seeing a new man, Felix. He's well off and charming, but comes off as a little controlling. Tilda doesn't seem to see any of that. She's deeply in love. Callie is alarmed when her larger than life sister begins to shrink before her very eyes... she's always been slim, but now she borders on skeletal. She's lost her spark. She is drifting away from her sister, seemingly content to spend all of her time with Felix. And then there's those bruises on her arms. Whenever Callie tries to broach the subject, Tilda becomes angry and defensive, as if her concern is a personal insult.

We get flashbacks into their childhood, where it becomes obvious that Callie has always had a bit of an obsession with her sister. She always wanted to watch out for her, know what she was up to, figure out weird little things to do that reaffirms their bond in her head. Her concern for her now reaches a boiling point. She joins a website for women affected by abuse, at first just to see if she's reading the signs correctly. It's not long before she jumps into the site head first, registering and making new anonymous friends. Some are women who are being abused and see no way out, and some like Callie are watching from the sidelines as a loved one suffers at the hands of a man.

Their lives spin more and more out of control... jealousy and death, and an ending that you won't forget. I found this book to very unsettling and highly original. Recommended to readers who don't mind getting their head messed with a bit.

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and Touchstone, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

A fascinating case, pre-Harold Shipman, which I had never heard of. It's a very thorough account of the history and the subsequent trial. For me, what was almost more interesting than the murder case issues was the fascinating insight it gave into middle class life in the early 1950s in south coast England.

I’m sure we have all heard of Dr Harold Shipman, I along with everyone else sat stunned in front of the television news as the events unfolded – and the revelations dating back years started to roll in. So it seemed incredible that I had never heard of a potentially earlier version of Harold Shipman, surely such a person would be just as infamous? The reason why I – and maybe you – hadn’t previously heard of Dr John Adams – is detailed in this fascinating work by Jane Robins, whose book The Magnificent Spilsbury: and the case of the Brides in the bath I read and enjoyed some time ago.

“After the trial, the police files were closed. All the details of the investigation – the mountain of witness statements, the forensic reports, Scotland Yard’s internal documents – were to be hidden from the public for seventy-five years. Conspiracy theories started to take root and were later encouraged by the catalytic combination of the internet and the imposed secrecy around the case. Some thought Dr Adams was the most prolific serial killer in British history, worse than Harold Shipman, and suggested that dark forces were at work, keeping the terrible truth about the scale of his crimes hidden. Others were fiercely loyal to the doctor. For them, it was more likely that the mysterious closed files contained evidence of a witch hunt, revealing that Dr Adams was a persecuted man, innocent all along, and the victim of an over-zealous investigation by Scotland Yard’s murder squad”

dradamsDr Adams was trained in the 1920’s and soon after finishing his training he went to Eastbourne to begin his career in general practice. Adams was not a particularly talented doctor, but he was ambitious, and quite prepared to put the time in. Dr Adams treated a lot of patients over the next thirty years and – possibly partly due to his location – many of those patients were elderly ladies, some of those elderly ladies left Dr Adams bequests in their wills. Dr Adams worked long hours – visiting his elderly patients at all hours – often more than once a day, and many of these people really loved Dr Adams. Many of those patients needed injections of Morphine, and many spent their last weeks in a state of almost complete coma. Adams was secretive about his treatments and guarded his patients jealously, taking a very dim view when others close to his patients acted against his wishes. Over the decades the people of Eastbourne fell into two camps – those who adored Dr Adams –and for whom he could do no wrong and those who were deeply suspicious of him, and who helped circulate the rumours and gossip which surrounded him.

In 1957 an inquest was opened into the death of one of Dr Adams patients the wealthy Mrs Bobbie Hullett she had died after months of barbiturate use, drugs prescribed for her by her good friend and doctor Dr John Bodkin Adams. The inquest unleased a storm of interest, the press descended on the seaside town and speculation about Dr Adams’ activities was rife. At one point it was suggested that there were around 300 suspicious cases involving Dr Adams going back over thirty years. Superintendent Hannam of Scotland Yard was called in to investigate.

Life for wealthy women in 1950’s Eastbourne as documented by Jane Robins was really quite pleasant – and Robins faithfully recreates the atmosphere of this post war time. It is easy to imagine how the rumour mill worked, eventually going into overdrive – but equally how a man from such a revered profession was able to get so close to so many elderly women – who treated him as a friend as well as a doctor hanging on his every word. Dr Adams drove around Eastbourne in a Rolls Royce – employed a chauffeur and quite definitely liked the finer things in life. He lived in a grand house himself, employed a gardener and a housekeeper. A life-long bachelor; he was a wealthy man – a lot of his money having come from the patients he had treated and to whom he had even given financial help and advice.

eastbourneJane Robbins brilliantly shows how difficult a case this was to investigate, although there was little in the way of actual evidence, there was compelling suggestion on both sides of the question. There were those who simply couldn’t believe Dr Adams could kill for often relatively small sums of money – when he was already so well off, and then there were the deaths of people who hadn’t left him a penny which confused the issue. However he had also successfully arranged for many of his patients to be quickly cremated, and had lied about his own pecuniary interests on a number of occasions. Dr Adams maintained his calm unconcerned attitude throughout the investigation and the trial that came later. With access to a mass of documents from the time, Jane Robbins lifts the lid on a fascinating and complex case. She also tells the stories of many women who were treated by Dr Adams, women who trusted him, relied upon him and who needed increasingly higher doses of Morphine and Heroin – prescribed in unusually large amounts by their friend and physician. This was an enormously compelling and readable book, Robin’s precise and detailed research allowing us to get as close to the facts as is probably possible.

The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath is a non-fiction history by Jane Robins in which she explores the sinister deaths of a string of almost-"spinster" women, mysteriously drowning in rooming house baths within a few days or weeks of marrying. The years involved range from approximately 1908 to 1915, the places primarily the seaside towns of England, and the individual involved in all the cases was the multiple-aliased George Joseph Smith (aka Henry Williams aka John Lloyd, etc.). The "magnificent Spilsbury" of the title is the young forensic pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, who brought scientific analysis into the courtroom, and it was, indeed, largely his evidence that convicted Smith of multiple murders. Robins' book alternates chapters between the stories of the female victims and the development of the pathologist's expertise; the full story is told in an engaging style, but every quote she uses is well-sourced, either to interviews by police or to newspaper articles concerning the crimes and the trial, or to books written by some of the involved parties after the fact. What's most interesting to me is that in her last chapters Robins points out that most of the "science" the Spilsbury confidently put forth to condemn the evil Smith has since been disproven - that is, the man was convicted on false evidence! However, there's no doubt that he was guilty, which raises more questions to ponder. I think a good historical treatise should leave one with more questions than answers at the end, and this does a good job of that. A really fascinating glimpse into the English world of 100 years ago, now long gone; recommended!