Who Killed Little Johnny Gill: A Victorian True Crime Murder Mystery,
A first novel in the spirit of the True Crime genre, Who Killed Little Johnny Gill, set in Victorian England, is the fictionalized story of the real life murder of eight-year old Johnny Gill. When Johnny goes missing, after innocently hopping aboard the milkman’s cart, Mary Ann and Thomas Gill’s worst fears are realized. Their anxiety, turned to terror, empties itself to the numbness of grief that paralyzes the community, as they wait on the investigator’s findings and the trial of the prime suspect, William Barrett, whose shocking silence and lack of emotion prompts more questions than certitudes and leaves the people (and the reader) divided between his guilt and innocence.
Strong dialect coupled with the darkest of times and even darker imagery, lends credibility to the author’s style. However, the novel finds it voice in the careful Sherlockian overtone that draws the reader into the grit of murder mystery intrigue, step by meticulous step. It reviews the evidence procured by Chief Detective Inspector Dobson and Chief Constable James Withers, in an effort to right a terrible wrong, to bring truth to light, and to find a measure of justice and peace for the Gill family.
The novel is recommended for its carefully balanced tension, character appeal, and dedication to the process of discovery during the formative years of forensic science.
E-edition reviewed
