''Chickenfeed'' is a 2006
crime novel
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...
la by English writer
Minette Walters
Minette Caroline Mary Walters Deputy Lieutenant, DL (born 26 September 1949) is an English writer.
Life and work
Walters was born in Bishop's Stortford in 1949 to Samuel Jebb and Colleen Jebb. As her father was a serving army officer, the f ...
, published as part of the "''
Quick Reads '' Quick Reads'' is a series of short books by bestselling authors and celebrities. With no more than 200 pages, they are designed to encourage adults who do not read often or find reading difficult to discover the joy of books.
Quick Reads are a c ...
''", designed to promote literacy through short, simply written and fast moving stories.
Synopsis
Based on the real life case of Elsie Cameron, a woman whose body was dismembered by her fiancé,
Norman Thorne
Norman Thorne (c. 1902 – 22 April 1925) was an English Sunday school teacher and chicken farmer who was convicted and hanged for what became known as the chicken run murder. , who was hanged for her supposed murder in 1924. Walters re-creates the events leading up to Cameron's death and writes from the perspective of both Elsie and Norman, as their relationship slowly turns sour and Norman yearns to be free from Elsie.
In an afterword to the novella, Walters explains her doubts that Cameron's death was actually a murder, and suggests that the assessment of pathologist
Bernard Spilsbury
Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury (16 May 1877 – 17 December 1947) was an English pathologist. His cases include Hawley Crippen, the Seddon case, the Major Armstrong poisoning, the "Brides in the Bath" murders by George Joseph Smith, the Crumb ...
on which the death sentence was based was wrong.
References
External links
More about ''Chickenfeed'' on Walters' websiteAgent's dedicated page
2006 British novels
Novels by Minette Walters
British novellas
Fiction set in 1924
Pan Books books
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