Blood  Ivy, Paul Collins
Blood  Ivy, Paul Collins
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Blood & Ivy
The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard

Author: Paul Collins

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly

Unabridged: 8 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/17/2018


Synopsis

A delectable true-crime story of scandal and murder at America’s most celebrated universityOn November 23, 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city’s richest men vanished. Dr. George Parkman, a Brahmin who owned much of Boston’s West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbor―some leads put Parkman at sea or in Manhattan―but a Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had never even left the Medical School building. His shocking discovery engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, Harvard’s professor of chemistry. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbing, and dismemberment, it became a landmark in the use of medical forensics. Rich in characters and atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America’s greatest murder mysteries.

About Paul Collins

Paul Collins is an author specializing in science writing, magazine writing, history, and memoir; his books have appeared in a dozen languages. He is the recipient of an Oregon Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Portland State University.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cindy H. on May 21, 2018

Thank you to NetGalley and WW Norton Publishing for gifting me with an ARC of Blood & Ivy by Paul Collins. In exchange I offer my unbiased review. I absolutely loved this true crime account. Collins skillfully and artistically draws the reader into the mid 19th century and the exclusive halls of Har......more

Goodreads review by Thebooktrail on June 10, 2018

A real life crime of the century brought to grisly exquisite life! Take your reading scalpel to this one and get dissecting!......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on November 09, 2020

Did someone say murder?? This book will not disappoint! Get ready for something that feels like it could not have possibly happened - sensational murder, a prominent member of society - and a college embroiled in intrigue. I could not put this one down! It was amazing, and I would highly recommend to......more

Goodreads review by Jan C on June 07, 2020

Excellent. Anyone is capable of murder given the right set of circumstances, whether you have a pedigree or not. Professor Webster, chemistry professor at Harvard, inherited a tidy sum of $40,000 (equivalent to $1,178,800 today) and married a woman who had money but somehow wound up in debt. He had......more


Quotes

“A nimble writer, the author skillfully sets the stage for this nineteenth-century murder mystery…A vivid true-crime tale from a fascinating bygone era.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Mesmerizing…A fine mixture of true crime, historical exposition, and class conflict in mid-nineteenth-century American history.” Publishers Weekly