VILLAINY DETECTED

An epicure in enigma, who has spent a lifetime of reading, research and now writing on 18th century crime in England, here presents a collection of famous criminals and cases which caught the imagination of the times or of later interpreters. Among those present are such classicists as Andrew Lang, William Roughead, Daniel Defoe, Raymond Postgate, Sir Walter Scott, Edmund Pearson. And you will contend with the disappearance of William Harrison who returned after others had been executed for his murder; with Swift Nicks, King Charles' favorite highwayman; with the pirate Richardson; with the thief Jack Shepperd whom no jail could hold; with poisoner Mary Blandy and the ghost of Sgt. Davies; and -in two versions- the perennially perplexing Bet Canning. (Lillian de la Torre wrote a book on this topic- Elizabeth is Missing -- Knopf). ...Criminal curiosities and causes celebres, in an anthology for those who have liked the works of other scholar-addicts.