The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer

Today’s nonfiction post is on The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb. It is 432 pages long and is published by Algonquin Books. The cover is a picture of Cream. The intended reader is someone who likes true crime and history. There is some mild foul language, discussion of sex, and mild violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- “When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals,” Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most baffling investigations. “He has nerve and he has knowledge.”
In the span of fifteen years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream poisoned at least ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedents. Structured around Cream’s London murder trial in 1892, when he was finally brought to justice, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners, as well as the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials, and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help.
Dean Jobb vividly re-creates this largely forgotten historical account against the backdrop of the birth of modern policing and newly adopted forensic methods, though most police departments still scoffed at using science to solve crimes. But then most police departments could hardly imagine that serial killers existed—the term was unknown at the time. As the Chicago Tribune wrote then, Cream’s crimes marked the emergence of a new breed of killer, one who operated without motive or remorse, who “murdered simply for the sake of murder.” 

Review- A very well written historical true crime with lots of notes and details about a forgotten serial killer. Jobb is a good researcher and I have read one of his books before I had high expectations for this book. The story is told from different times from Cream’s present in London on trail back to his childhood and his first murders. Jobb does a good job balancing the narrative so the reader is never lost. The writing style is very good, engaging, and gives the reader a very strong sense of place and time. This book also has some history of policing and forensics by following a detective sent to find out about Cream in Canada and the United States. I would recommend this book. 

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.