"I, Miriam Jane Cromer, wife of Howard Cromer, wish voluntarily to state that on the afternoon of Monday, 12th March, 1888, at Park Lodge, Kew Green, I murdered one Josiah Perceval, photographic assistant in my husband's employment. I added potassium cyanide to a decanter of wine, knowing that he was likely to drink from it and be fatally poisoned..."

The Victorian Domestic Murder has a place of its own in folklore and literary history. Peter Lovesey has created a story that will stand comparison with the classic crimes of fact and fiction.