The cautionary true crime shocker of Virginia’s Elizabeth Hall, and one of the most sensational trials of an accused murderess since Lizzie Borden. On an April morning in 1914, Victor Hall was murdered in his store at Green Springs Depot. It was only hours after his competitor’s business had been torched. The Louisa County sheriff, state investigator, and railroad detectives suspected Hall's rival, one of a dozen men with viable motives. Then gossip spread that Victor’s wife, Elizabeth, had poisoned her first husband. Coupled with more sordid rumors, the unfounded accusations became irresistibly salacious headlines, whipping the state of Virginia into a frenzy for seven months. Friends and neighbors perjured themselves to become part of the front-page story. And as Hall’s own Pinkerton detective turned against her in the same mad rush to judgment, the widow found herself trapped in a nightmare that was just beginning. A century later, J.K. Brandau, husband of Elizabeth Hall’s great-granddaughter, finally unearths the timely and tragic story in which truth didn’t stand a chance against the most public, lurid, and sensational lies.

Recounts the events surrounding the dramatic post-Civil War trial of a young African American sawmill hand who was accused of ax murdering a white woman on her Virginia farmyard and who implicated three other women in the crime.

Murder! Mystery! Outrage! Victor Hall, young railway depot master, married to the strikingly older widow of his former employer, was shot dead in his store just hours after someone torched his competitor's business. The sheriff, state investigator, and railroad detectives suspected Hall's business rival until strange circumstances, rumors of poisoning her first husband and of a freakish love interest fixed suspicion on the innocent widow. Even her own Pinkerton detective turned against her! Arsons, frenzy, and conspiracies forced Mrs. Hall's arrest for murder. Civil unrest forced her exile until trial. Cabal, perjury and media sensation secured conviction and sent the widow to prison leaving daughters to fend for themselves. Reason returned, but convoluted politics barred her release. Embarrassment repressed the statewide sensation that newspapers predicted to become ." . . one of the most famous criminal cases in Virginia."

"Knitting tips and delicious recipe included!"--Back cover.

An Agatha-Christie-style whodunit with a dash of Downton Abbey thrown in. Master detective Lord Edgington and his hapless grandson Christopher must outfox a killer when murder comes to the spring ball!