![]() ![]() Throughout the book, Tawell is thoroughly unrepentant and completely devoid of charm. The government even pays to send his family to be with him! (Guess they showed him that crime doesn't pay!) ![]() As a younger man convicted of forgery, he is transported to Australia where he manages to make a bundle. ![]() An elderly Quaker named John Tawell is the only suspect. The rest of the book revolves around one fairly unspectacular murder case. The thrill of the chase is over within the first two chapters. ![]() (The two-needle telegraph contained no code for the letter 'q'.) On New Year's Day 1845, a young telegraph operator in Paddington Station received the following message:Ī 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. I was expecting a Connections-type book about how the telegraph and perhaps other inventions not specifically designed for crime prevention ended up being used for EXACTLY that purpose. "Fans of Erik Larson’s true-crime thrillers will be pleased by this gripping account that presents a tipping point in the public acceptance of the telegraph: its use in 1845 to alert the authorities in London that a murder suspect had boarded a train headed there." I entered the giveaway, and I won.īoth the title of the book AND the contest's description led me to expect something different: ![]()
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