Rating: 
Summary: Historical and Interesting, But No Definitive Answer
Review: This book is a wonderfully written account of a marriage that was unfortunately destined for a miserable failure. I believe I would have enjoyed it more if the author, Ruddick, had left the possibilities of the murderer to our imaginations. I had a hard time with the second half of the book where Ruddick takes steps to "solve the crime." Although I believe his conclusions, I felt that the style of writing and intensity of the book took a nose-drive in the second section. If you buy this book, don't look at the pictures printed in the middle, because I did, and unfortunately, as a picture speaks a thousand words, these ones actually told me the outcome of Mr. Ruddick's thesis.I did enjoy the wierd conclusions to the lives of the suspects and associates in the incident. All in all a very entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: The best work to date, thorough and full of new information
Review: This is an outstanding work of true crime and scholarship, and is, to my mind, the definitive work to date on the Bravo case. The author has read and examined every source he could find, and, after dismissing most of the secondary works on the case as inaccurate, returned to the primary sources, such as the Coroner's Inquest testimony and other source documents for much of the information in this book. This is a thoroughly researched work of true crime. Ruddick also places the crime firmly in the social and legal context of the era and explains the horrible position of a Victorian woman trapped in a bad marriage: there were no real options, and even separation was socially unacceptable and legally possible only if both parties agreed to it. Florence Bravo was between a rock and a hard place--married to an abusive, short-tempered money grubber [her first husband was an abusive alcoholic] who married her solely for her money.
I agree with 85 to 90% of the author's reasoning, though he does jump to a few conclusions. Ruddick also effectively demolishes two of the prevailing theories for Bravo's murder: the accidental overdose theory, i.e., Florence intented to put just a little antimony in Charles's water to sicken him and prevent his sexual advances, and the theory that Mrs. Cox poisoned Bravo for firing her.
There are a few "aren't I clever" moments, such as the author's demonstration in the Priory that the maid standing at the doorway of the room Bravo died in would have heard Bravo alleged confess of taking poison to Mrs. Cox. He seems surprised that the police didn't try this during their investigation, but about 25 pages previously he states that "ninety percent of the crimes that the Metropolitan Police investigated in their first fifty years were crimes against property." Ruddick also drops in facts several places in the book. For example, in a discussion of Mrs. Cox's behavior during Bravo's illness he describes her as "a trained night nurse" and "a woman trained in sickroom procedures." There is no mention of this training in the previous information about Mrs. Cox's background or previous employment. He also describes a quarrel during a trip to London on the day Bravo was poisoned and surmises that this was the straw that broke Florence's back, but I find no mention of this quarrel in the previous description of that day.
The book would have also benefitted from a chronology of events list. I found myself flipping back and forth looking for dates of specific events frequently and a one-page chronology would have been useful and a time-saver. The floor plan illustrations of the Priory printed on the endpapers are useless; they don't even tell what floor of the house they represent! Approximate room measurement would also have been nice.
These few faults do not detract from an outstanding book. Ruddick's theory of the crime is not new, but it is persuasively stated and covers all the facts of the case. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about one of true crime's classic puzzles.
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