“Crime and murder were obsessions in the nineteenth century,” Dean Jobb notes. Crime stories filled the newspapers, and novelists churned out horrid tales. The detective genre was basically invented by Edgar Allan Poe and was perfected by Arthur Conan Doyle in Sherlock Holmes. Charles Dickens and his friend Wilkie Collins wrote novels centered around crime and Scotland Yard’s detectives.

Holmes told Watson that “when a doctor goes wrong, he is the first of criminals.” And in Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, we discover the ‘first’ of criminals, a serial killer of unfortunate women, a man who faced the bar and walked out to kill again. And again, before a Scotland Yard detective crossed two continents to chase down Cream’s history and finally brought him to justice.

Cream was a model youth and young man: a Sunday School teacher who had memorized the Gospel of Matthew; a wealthy man who dressed well; a graduate of the esteemed Royal College of Edinburgh University. While a student he picked up the vile habits of smoking, drink, drugs, and women.

He was an abortionist, setting up practice in the poorer neighborhoods among women reduced to prostitution. His crimes precipitated from arson for insurance fraud and broken engagements to the abandonment of the wife he was forced to marry after he aborted their baby. He perfected his craft of murder with poison, obtaining the drugs by posing as a salesman to pharmacists.

As scandal surrounded him, Cream relocated across Canada, the United States, and Britain, setting up his practice and grooming his next victim. Who knows how many more he would have poisoned had not Scotland Yard Inspector Frederick Smith Jarvis followed Cream’s trail across continents.

Cream’s convoluted career raises questions: How did a privileged, educated, and religious man become so vicious? Did he believe he was ridding the world of fallen women? Was he a sociopath who hid under a conventional façade until free to act out his perverse desires?

True Crime aficionados and mystery lovers will enjoy this book. Also, readers of Victorian Age history.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I enjoy mysteries, but I don't normally choose true crime books. I prefer my villains to be imaginary. But the description of this book and its subject - a killer who seems to have been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde and as deadly as Jack the Ripper - was intriguing. Why had I never heard of this case until now?

Dr. Cream was a criminal who managed to divert suspicion through a variety of means. He also spread his crimes over 3 countries and multiple cities so that authorities had a hard time linking them all together. The amazing amount of travel and cross referencing that the detective of Scotland Yard had to do seems nearly impossible in a time when there were no airlines, Internet, or modern forensic amenities.

The author does an incredible job of telling the story of Cream, his victims, his pursuers, his trials (yes, plural), and final fate. The list of sources is extensive and the book includes archival images of people and places. He also explains the means of each murder and the methods used to identify each one by the police and experts like toxicologists of the day.

Anyone looking for a true crime book should check out the tale of Dr. Cream.

Wow, disturbing true crime novel about a doctor who becomes a notorious serial killer. A well written, accessible and fascinating glimpse into the mind of a psychopath.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream is a true crime story that reads like a novel. Dean Jobb, a master of true crime writing, centers the story around the doctor's murder trial in 1892. Dr. Cream poisoned 10 or more people in the U.S., Canada and London in his role as a medical doctor. He used the trust that people give to their doctors to prey on women who were forced to turn to Dr. Cream for help with their medical issues. His murder spree went unchecked until he was finally apprehended in London during the time when forensics were just being discovered. Jobb tells an amazing story especially of how a medical professional was able to get away with murdering women for so long. Fans of the Devil in the White City, fiction works like the Alienist and anything Sherlock Holmes will love this book. I'm not a big fan of true crime, but this was excellent, and very, very creepy. Many thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read the ARC.

Although I got a little confused here and there it was a good history of Dr. Cream who committed murder with poison. I enjoyed the book but it could've been a little condensed.

I have not read a lot of true crime, but have spent the past year watching more true crime shows than is probably good for me. I was immediately drawn into this story and had trouble putting it down. The author does a great job of giving context for the time in which these crimes were committed including other high profile crimes as well as popular culture. Everyone has heard of Jack the Ripper but not Dr. Cream despite the fact that these serial killers were active so close together. The research that went into this book is clear and there is so much detail to Cream's history and early years. It was also really interesting to learn more about the early days of police investigations and evidence testing. There were so many times I wanted to reach into the past and shake the police for doing such a terrible job of taking the murders seriously or just communicating with different divisions within the same department!

Dr. Cream was a prolific murderer of women in the US, Canada and Britain. Poison was his weapon followed by deceit and blackmail. He had an uncanny ability to escape conviction coupled with good attorneys, gradual development of forensic science, the antiquated treatment and social position of women, and expectation that doctors were never wrong. Dr. Cream is eventually convicted and hung. This is also an enthralling read of the development of forensic science, expert testimony, and police investigation. Fascinating and well researched book that kept my attention to the very end. I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A well done and through account of the case of Dr. Cream.
Jobb painted an excellent picture of the world that Cream preyed upon. He has done, in my opinion, an excellent job of proving that Cream had, at the very least, nine victims. A nice array of photographs accompanied the interesting narrative. I am sure there will be one complaint, it is long. For me it could not have been too long. I will admit, however, that after he put the case to rest, that last chapter, I was ready to pack it in. Not due to any length. I just felt like that last chapter was rushed and not done with the same masterful stroke that was used with the rest of the book.
Jobb took his time and presented the reader with a concise and accurate account of the deeds of the infamous Dr. Cream. At times he was like a prosecutor, at times a storyteller, at times a historian, but always a fan of true crime. He did flirt with the ghost of Jack the Ripper. How could he not? Cream was Jack the poisoner. I was sad and happy to see him address this at the end. Sad because I did not think it necessary and it was only pandering to those who are foolish enough to think that Cream could have escaped Joliet, committed the Ripper crimes, and then gone back to Joliet. The fact that Cream is on any list as a Ripper possible is simply ludicrous. I was happy, however, that he did address it again only to put it to rest forever - one would hope.
This was, for me, a great true crime find. I was not aware of this case before and it was interesting to read of a man who tramped along the same grounds, around the same time as well, as H. H. Holmes and the great Ripper. It was also disturbing that there were plenty of other cases - some deadly and some not - that turned out not to be Cream. How many others were there. It also made me realize that it seemed to be somewhat of a fad - maybe a kink - for some men to give women pills that made them sick and at times killed them. Although for most I would assume the former was the motive. Maybe it was a white knight syndrome. They would make the lady sick and either save her or protect her. The proof of the latter would be in it not happening again - albeit because he was the one to do it to begin with.
A good summer read that is guaranteed to leave one riveted.

Victorian true crime is one of my favorite literary niches, and those who love it should be completely engrossed by The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream. Non-linear narratives almost never work for me, but the way that this true crime saga unfolded was quite clever, and I was never lost or confused. I think if the book had began when Cream was born, I would have become bored before he even made it to medical school.

The research for this book that Dean Jobb conducted in three countries is very impressive and detailed enough to flesh out the book well. I was endlessly horrified, not by the poisonings themselves (which were gruesome) but by how the good doctor kept getting away with it for so many years as the bodies piled up. Also deeply satisfying: the ideas that Jobb teases from the historical evidence about Dr. Cream's mental state, religious upbringing, and other factors that may have contributed to turning him into a serial killer. The reader is invited to psychoanalyze Cream at her leisure, and armchair psychology of serial killers can be entertaining (at least it is for me). The state of medicine during the 19th century, with the doctor as a sort of all-powerful godlike figure definitely had a part to play in Cream's murderous mayhem, as did lax drug regulations and the ugly male takeover of midwifery (many of his victims, the evidence indicates, may have been seeking abortions when they consulted this evil doctor).

I was waving the book in the air more than once saying "listen to the women! Why don't they listen to the women!" but of course doctors still disregard the claims of women even today. What if he had gone around poisoning men, regardless of social standing and reputation? He'd have never gotten out of prison for Serial Killings Round Two.

Dr. Cream was certainly a cunning serial killer. I found the history of forensics interesting, but the total story could have been condensed. It jumped around quite a bit, eg adding new characters and changing locations frequently.

As a graduate of McGill University, I was completely drawn into this book and became engrossed in the era, and grim trajectory of Dr. Cream's murder-ridden career. The meticulous research and superb archival materials, as well as the careful description of exact details are the strength of this work. It is an important work on many scholarly levels. As a narrative read, however, it did leave a bit to be desired -- the organization of the writing could have been clearer. We did seem to be shifted around a lot both in time and place, and then occasionally circling back in the story. This left me a bit confused, and detracted in my view, from the narrative clarity and pacing of an amazing story.

Though a little hard to follow at times, this book has an interesting way of presenting the case, almost as if you are one of the investigators. You don't find out about different parts of Cream's past until later on as it is being discovered by Scotland Yard. There is a good bit of information about the context of the case, as to why the dots weren't connected earlier. Overall, a good presentation of an infamous killer.

As a lover of true crime, this was right up my alley. I got all wrapped up in the time of the late 19th century. We start the book with Dr. Cream getting released from prison in Illinois after being convicted of murder. But that isn't the end of his story. After that we travel back to the start of this murderous man's life. We follow his trail from the start of his life in Canada, through medical school in Canada and Great Britain. To Illinois and prison and what follows his release. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

True crime is always interesting because I wonder why and how these people ended up the way they did--let's face it, these books are never about the mundane killings, they're about the headline grabbers, the unsolved killings, the unthinkable losses of life. Here we have a Scotch Canadian, a Sunday School teacher, even, who somehow turns to using strychnine to murder "fallen" or "unfortunate" women. And because this is during the Victorian Era, we don't have the best forensics and detection abilities, but even with that stipulation there are times when I thought "omg how lucky could this guy get?!"

In keeping with the era, the writing is slow and meandering, moving from Cream's release from Joliet to his activities in London back to his upbringing and education in Canada and from the "present" day to the Scotland Yard investigation. Luckily there are not so many people that it becomes difficult to keep the different victims and investigators separate. There is a part of me, though, that wished the story had been told as though we didn't know whodunnit and were following the evidence along with the detectives and they pieced things together.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

There is nothing like a serial killer to get your blood boiling and this particular one is most upsetting because he was a Doctor. Dr. Cream poisoned at least ten women over a fifteen year period before he was finally brought to trial in London in 1892. It is always fascinating to see how the police refused to use the new science of forensics which would have solved a great many of these crimes, the Victorian society norms that gave Dr. Cream a multitude of willing victims in search of an abortion and the ease of which a doctor was able to obtain deadly poisons in large quantities. Dean Jobb gives us a fascinating and grisly look at what makes a killer and how he can hide in plain sight making this just the ticket for those fans of THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, Jack the Ripper and MINDHUNTER. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

My patrons love true crime and it's good to find an old case like this that most people have never heard of for something a little different.

True Crime when done well is really catnip for me. This one is no exception. Psychopathic doctor from Canada gets transplanted to Victorian England. The main character's background was very intriguing that added to the thrilling narrative.

A few years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream killed prostitutes, a lover's husband, and his own wife. Cream, a Canadian who emigrated to England after a stint in an Illinois prison for murder, was an arrogant, licentious and psychopathic man. He not only poisoned people with strychnine, he made attempts to blackmail others for these crimes. The author examines this repulsive, fascinating man in this well-researched book. Good read!!