Why a Booktrail?
When truth is much stranger than the weirdest fiction…
The Mermaid’s Scream
What you need to know before your trail
Wynn Staniland, a legend in the literary world, suddenly became a recluse in the 1980s. It’s thought it was because of his wife’s bizarre suicide; a death that mirrored a murder case from the nineteenth century. Author Zac Wilkinson is working on Staniland’s biography and hopes to reveal the true story to a waiting world.
When Wilkinson himself is found brutally murdered however, DI Wesley Peterson finds links to the unexplained poisoning of a middle-aged couple at a local caravan park – and Wynn Staniland appears to be the connection.
As Wesley delves further into the case he suspects a sinister puppet show might provide the solution: a grim re-enactment of the murder of Mary Field, a cause celebre from the reign of Queen Victoria that inspired Staniland’s best-known novel..
Travel Guide
Let’s BookTrail it to Devon
The village of Tradmouth is fictional but the story of Mary Field, Although fictional too is based on a real life story. In 1884 a young woman called Laura Dimes livd in Oldstone house close to the village of Blackawton. She went for a ride one morning and was later found dead. She had been poised in the sitting upright position and placed in a pond. There was no sign of violence or struggle and although the water came over her head, there was no sign of drowning.The verdict was accidental death.
The matter may have ended there but it was soon discovered that Laura had married a rather shady character and only three weeks before her death. Her new husband was arrested but there was no evidence he had anything to do with Laura’s death and so he was acquitted. Ten years after the trial, the house mysteriously burned down and Laura is said to haunt the very spot..
Murder as Entertainment
The Victorians were not the puritanical bunch we might think they were. Notorious murder cases held a grim fascination and public executions particularly popular although these ended in 1868.There are a few murders referred to in the book which were real and very very gruesome, yet attracted many people who tried to solve the crime or who followed the police’s every move. The Ratcliff Highway murders in particular were infamous at the time and still are. Thomas Hardy is said to have watched a public hanging at the age of sixteen which led him to write Tess of the D’Urbervilles many years later. Some murders were even reenacted by travelling shows.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Mermaid’s Scream
Destination : Devon Author/Guide: Kate Ellis Departure Time: 1884, 2016
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