Murder by Mistake

Description

The mysteries surrounding Britain’s 7th earl of Lucan have endured for almost four decades. In 1974, after his carefully crafted plan to murder his wife went awry, he killed his nanny by mistake, and then attacked his wife ─ all while his three children were in the house. If it happened today, everyone with access to the Internet and TV would be inundated for months with the contradictory details of this bizarre story and how the dashing aristocrat became the subject of a worldwide manhunt. In 1974, England was still very focused on the perks afforded the titled rich. To add insult to murder, the focus of the case moved from the dead nanny and injured wife to the whereabouts of the earl, who disappeared shortly after the attacks. While the police analyzed the evidence, friends and relatives of the missing earl closed ranks and obstructed the investigation. Those same aristocratic friends may have helped get him out of the country and may know where he — or his body — is today. M. J. Trow, British author of the Lestrade, Peter “Mad Max” Maxwell, and the brand-new and very well-received Kit Marlowe detective series, as well as nonfiction books on important historical figures, presents the astonishing details of this case. Trow also analyzes what likely happened the night of the murder and the fate of the missing earl. Combining his talents as a storyteller and the objectivity of a historian, Trow leads us into the opulent sanctuaries of England’s aristocracy, suddenly violated by a despicable crime.