On New Year’s Day 1845 a message was sent along the telegraph wires laid beside the railway tracks between Slough and Paddington stations:
“A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill and the suspected murderer was seen to take a first-class ticket for London by the train which left Slough at 7:42 p.m. He is in the garb of a kwaker.”
(The early two-needle telegraph had no letter ‘q’.)
A man was apprehended; a man with an extraordinary story.
John Tawell had been found guilty of fraud, he was transported to a penal colony in Australia; when his fourteen year sentence was done he made his fortune, sent hope for his family, and, some years later, they returned to England.
Carol Baxter tells his story, the story of the crime and the investigation, and the story of the trial and conviction. It reads like a drama-documentary. The level of detail is extraordinary, and the long, long list of sources confirm that this book was built the most detailed, most thorough research.
I learned much about the development of the electric telegraph, early Australian history, Quakerism, chemistry and forensic medicine. It was fascinating, but once the ‘thrill of the chase’ was over the story settled, it became engaging when it should have compelling.
There was no major fault but there were small things: dialogue that was credible but that no amount of research could have uncovered, a lack of wider and historical context, and maybe a little unevenness in the pacing.
But Carol Baxter writes well, she clearly knows and loves her subject, and she handles the small revelations and the big revelations particularly well
There really was a great deal to hold the interest.
The case against John Tawell was compelling, but the evidence was circumstantial, and there are many questions that could be asked about the handling of the investigation and the subsequent court case.
There was a confession, at the eleventh hour, but the written document has not survived and so there has to be another question. Did it exist or was it merely reported?
The title of the book and description of the book is a little misleading, and I can understand why some readers have been disappointed.
This is actually a very human story, and its strength is the remarkable history and psychology of John Tawell.
That’s what came through at the end, that’s what had stayed with me, and it made this book well worth reading.
Fleur in her World 
I often really like these kinds of books. The story of the man behind the crime does sound interesting.
The story and the psychology is wonderful and the negatives I had to point out don’t spoil that, so I’d definitely say you should give this one a try.
Sounds good Jane – in the mould of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, perhaps, which I really enjoyed.
I actually liked this one a little ore, because it focused on the one suspect. There wasn’t so much mystery, but the psychology and the back story were the strengths of this book instead.
I thought the same thing as Kaggsy – very much like The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. That book also flagged once the crime was ‘solved’, but I did enjoy the delving into human nature element of it and it sounds like this book has that too.
This one keeps its grip till the end, because there’s just a little room for doust and because there’s a lot to think about.
Came via Brona’s blog. My Aussie reading has been strongly on the fictional side. Thanks for the review. It does sound interesting.
So many of the convicts sent to Australia were done so under dubious & doubtful circumstances.
My family tree had quite a few convicts & most of them were for minor crimes like stealing bread to feed their family or a copper pot (to sell to feed their family).
Only one seems to have been a dodgy character with quite a few misdemeanors to his name. It is possible to read some of the court manuscripts and local newspaper clippings about this dodgy ancestor. But it took a lot of digging and library & computer research to find this information.
So I admire (& appreciate the effort required) by any author to find out this kind of information about anyone from that time.
I haven’t heard of this book before, but I will certainly keep an eye out for it now.