In 1876 an up-and-coming young barrister, Charles Bravo, died an agonising and protracted death after swallowing antimony, a corrosive poison. The case became the 19th century’s most celebrated unsolved murder mystery, involving some of the country’s wealthiest families and celebrities. A considerable number of books have been written on the subject, and many views – including those of Agatha Christie -expressed about the identity of the perpetrator.

James Ruddick, a journalist and television researcher, decided to examine the evidence by going right back to the original sources, and tracing the living descendants of the families. His book is enthralling – more gripping than many a fictional whodunnit. It is in two parts – the first a straightforward and thoroughly exciting re-telling of the events in the years and final weeks leading up to Bravo’s death, the second a close examination of the principal suspects, incorporating new evidence he has uncovered.

All of the main players in the drama were extraordinary – two of them were famous medical practitioners, bearing almost identical surnames. William Gull, Queen Victoria’s physician, only entered the stage in the final scene of the drama, so can hardly be considered as a serious suspect. Strangely, it has been suggested in recent years that he was Jack the Ripper. Dr. James Gully was a famous practitioner of hydrotherapy, consulted by the rich and famous. His downfall was that before the Bravo marriage he became the lover of Florence Bravo, at that time the widowed Florence Ricardo.

It is Florence herself who is the central character in the book. She had the misfortune to be a highly-sexed woman when Victorian prudery was at its height, and made two disastrous marriages, based on violent physical attraction without knowing anything much else about either of the two men.

Scarcely less intriguing is the enigmatic Jane Cox, Florence’s housekeeper/companion – small, unassertive, dressed in dark clothing, she is a classic murder suspect.

There is not a dull moment in this book. For me one of the highlights is Ruddick’s visit to the scene of the crime, The Priory, Balham. His final conclusions, based on new evidence that is not entirely black and white, I find convincing. But I don’t agree with his theory about the coachman. Read it and see what you think.