Linda Stratmann Books in Order

Stratmann revisits historical killings across Essex using trial records, archives and contemporary accounts. Cases range from an eighteenth-century smuggler's fatal quarrel to poisoning in Clavering and the wartime killing of a taxi driver, examining evidence from the era of capital punishment.

William Whiteley arrived in London with little money and built a department store serving royalty and a wide range of customers. This history follows the Yorkshire draper's assistant behind a Victorian retail enterprise that promised to supply almost anything.

This history traces chloroform's changing place in medicine, society and crime. Stratmann examines its discovery and development as an anaesthetic, its nineteenth-century applications and abuses, and the broader consequences of a substance associated with both medical relief and dangerous misuse.

Historical murder cases reveal the darker side of Gloucestershire, from the Cheltenham torso killing to poisoning in the Forest of Dean. The collection also examines the Campden Wonder, in which a supposedly murdered man returned after three people had been executed.

Nineteenth-century impostors and financial swindlers feature in this collection of historical fraud cases. Stratmann examines Princess Caraboo's invented royal identity, John Sadleir's dishonest banking and other elaborate deceptions, showing how ambition and credulity enabled scandals that sometimes ruined ordinary investors.

Stratmann reconstructs the life of Colonel Francis Charteris and his notorious eighteenth-century trial for raping servant Ann Bond. The account examines an influential man's abusive conduct and the circumstances that enabled his victim to bring a criminal complaint against him.

This collection re-examines killings from Kent's history, combining prominent cases with puzzling local crimes. A doctor poisoned in Faversham, a couple beaten to death in Chislehurst and a mutilated body found on Ramsgate beach illustrate the county's varied criminal past.

Murders spanning more than a century reveal the darker history of Middlesex. Stratmann investigates cases including a body found in an Enfield Chase well, the killing of a teenage witness and an axe murder in Ruislip, drawing on previously unpublished information.

Thirty-three murder accounts, one from each London borough, explore crimes that attracted national attention and sometimes changed legal history. Cases include poisoner George Chapman, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, and Donald Hume's killing and disposal of businessman Stanley Setty.

Stratmann examines the Illustrated Police News, a newspaper famous for graphic accounts of crime and disaster. Looking beyond its sensational reputation, she investigates its production, imagery and political concerns, arguing that its coverage also challenged cruelty, poverty and other social problems.

Ten further Essex murder cases, dating from 1823 to 1960, explore violence driven by obsession, jealousy and greed. The collection includes a murdered police sergeant, a killing in Epping Forest and a defendant who claimed to have strangled someone while asleep.

This illustrated history explores the dramatic headlines and imagery of the penny newspaper Illustrated Police News. Stratmann uses its reports to examine readers' tastes and daily life, considering how sensational accounts of crime and bizarre events also carried messages about social reform.

When a customer dies after taking medicine from her father's chemist shop, nineteen-year-old Frances Doughty faces the ruin of the family business. Convinced the poisoning was deliberate, she investigates despite police skepticism, uncovering deception and troubling secrets close to home.

Historical impostors and swindlers populate this examination of nineteenth-century deception. From Mary Baker's performance as Princess Caraboo to forged share certificates and extravagant adventure stories, Stratmann explores how fraudsters exploited trust, ambition and public fascination to sustain their false claims.

Frances Doughty is hired to identify whoever distributed controversial pamphlets at a girls' school in Bayswater. Amid election excitement and campaigning for women's suffrage, the assignment develops into a murder inquiry that exposes lies and a concealed scandal among respectable residents.

A doctor operating a mortuary designed to prevent premature burial dies unexpectedly, and a trusted employee disappears the same night. Frances Doughty investigates the missing man, following suspicions of fraud, blackmail and murder toward a disturbing exhumation in the catacombs.

This biography reconsiders the Marquess of Queensberry, remembered for boxing rules and his conflict with Oscar Wilde. Drawing on unpublished letters, Stratmann examines family tragedies and personal crises that shaped his actions, presenting the Wilde affair from Queensberry's perspective.

A sudden death divides Bayswater's rival advocates of diet and food reform, while Frances Doughty investigates anonymous accusations. An ex-prisoner asks her to trace his family, but his arrest for his wife's murder turns her work toward missing children and disputed innocence.

In Brighton in 1871, skeptical writer Mina Scarletti attends a séance at her widowed mother's insistence. Concerned that medium Miss Eustace is exploiting grieving clients, Mina investigates under the pretext of wanting contact with her own deceased father.

After a body is found in Paddington's canal basin, a woman with a hearing impairment believes it is her long-missing husband. Frances Doughty investigates her claim, uncovering the man's secrets as another death and an attack on a witness heighten the danger.

A knife-wielding killer spreads panic through Bayswater in 1881, prompting rumors, accusations and nighttime vigilante patrols. When a friend becomes a victim, Frances Doughty enters an investigation many consider unsuitable for a woman, testing both her deductions and her courage.

An anonymous account claims George IV's ghost haunts Brighton's Royal Pavilion. Mina Scarletti suspects a hoax and prepares to expose it, but blackmail and threats rooted in her own past complicate her inquiry and put her safety at risk.

This social history examines nineteenth-century poisoning and the authorities trying to identify toxins, regulate their sale and prosecute killers. Stratmann connects individual cases with changes in forensic detection, marriage law and protections for children, while correcting misconceptions about particular poisons.

In London in 1882, a wealthy philanthropist vanishes from a locked room under guard. Frances Doughty reluctantly investigates the disappearance, finding connections to her own past while facing a murderer who may prevent her from uncovering the truth.

A young engaged couple asks Mina Scarletti to locate a trustworthy medium who can resolve suspicions surrounding their grandfather's death twenty years earlier. Although she doubts spirits, Mina investigates the family mystery that threatens their marriage and divides their relatives.

Frances Doughty goes undercover for the government to investigate apparently harmless activities at the Bayswater Bicycle Club. A suspicious disappearance and a brutal killing reveal dangerous secrets, forcing the detective to take extraordinary measures to avoid becoming the next victim.

Mina Scarletti visits Hollow House to investigate unexplained sounds and sightings of a woman in white. With servants refusing to remain after dark and the new mistress's health deteriorating, Mina seeks a rational explanation with help from Dr Hamid and her friend Nell.

Confined to bed by illness, Mina Scarletti receives a plea from a mother whose sick son reports visits from his father's ghost. Rumors that the father faked his death seven years earlier prompt Mina to investigate without violating her doctor's instructions.

In 1876, young Sherlock Holmes investigates intruders at the British Museum before the Rosetta Stone is stolen. A ransom demand and threats to destroy the treasure send Holmes and medical student Stamford into a case that soon involves murder.

Mina Scarletti's former suitor returns to Brighton claiming he can photograph spirits, including her dead father. Skeptical of his pictures, Mina examines his interest in bereaved families and suspicious deaths while an old enemy is drawn back into her life.

A boxer dies during a demonstration attended by Sherlock Holmes and medical student Stamford. When another fighter's body is found holding an ebony carving, Holmes investigates possible connections between the deaths and an earlier fatal encounter in the ring.

A preserved foot with extra toes arrives at a medical college, prompting Stamford to ask Sherlock Holmes to identify its owner. A concealed coded message and further deaths lead them toward the secretive Explorers Club, whose surviving members may also be in danger.

A disputed Great Auk specimen draws Sherlock Holmes into accusations of fraud against the British Museum. When an angry ornithologist is murdered, Holmes and Stamford investigate whether the exhibit’s controversy conceals something more dangerous than academic rivalry.

Concerned by a friend’s secretive husband, Stamford visits an Essex village and finds the man shot dead with his own gun. Sherlock Holmes investigates the husband’s hidden past and possible connections to further suspicious disappearances.

Stamford takes a despondent Sherlock Holmes to a magic show, but a corpse found in a conjuror’s cabinet renews his interest in detection. The investigation exposes professional rivalries and false identities that threaten both friends.

Sherlock Holmes and Stamford attend a sporting gathering at a country manor where simmering rivalries erupt into murder. With weapons readily available and guests barred from leaving, Holmes must identify a killer who may strike again.

Mycroft asks Sherlock to help an old friend suspected after a government courier disappears with secret documents. A body in the Thames strengthens the accusation, forcing the brothers and Stamford to test an increasingly troubling case.

A solicitor asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate a miraculous motor before his wealthy client invests her fortune. Holmes and Stamford attend a demonstration, but their inquiry into the secretive company soon develops into a deadlier mystery.

This biography traces Colonel Francis Charteris’s pursuit of wealth through gambling, fraud, and exploitation. Contemporary records illuminate his cruelty toward women and the servant’s resistance that led to a sensational trial and his public downfall.

A mathematician helping prepare a dirigible for a cross-Channel competition dies in suspicious circumstances. Sherlock Holmes sends Stamford to observe the test flights, investigating whether sabotage, gambling, or hidden secrets explain the mounting danger.

An elderly widow leaves her house to her maid, enraging four men each promised the inheritance. Sherlock Holmes investigates the contested death, a mysterious key, and an unidentified mummified body hidden among the house’s decorations.