Introduction

A beautiful young woman disappears from her home after bidding a fateful goodnight to her sweetheart. She is found dead in the Pasquotank River 36 days later. He is convicted TWICE for her murder – but is innocent. So what really happened...?

Ella Maud Cropsey, known to her friends and family as Nell, was born in July 1882 in Brooklyn, New York, before the family moved to Elizabeth City in North Carolina. Nell starts seeing Jim Wilcox, son of the local sheriff. They are an odd couple: Nell is beautiful, independent and eager for new experiences; Jim is short, stolid and five years older than Nell, but content with his lot.

On the night of November 20, 1901, Jim and other guests are there, calling on Nell and her sister Ollie. Around 11 p.m., Jim rises and bids the group good-bye, then asks Nell to accompany him to the porch. She is never seen alive again…

In Ella Maud, Nicholas Nicastro revisits a haunting mystery that still fascinates a nation a century later. His masterly re-imagining of these tragic events sees beyond the prejudices that destroys families and taints small communities but corrodes civilisation itself. Nicastro’s simple story-telling style, with its kaleidoscopic perspectives, is moving, beautiful and profound.

Praise for Ella Maud...

"This is a splendid novel, meticulously researched and beautifully written... The ending is a tour-de-force." - Joy Martin, author of A Wrong to Sweeten and Seeking Clemency

"There is a great sense of time and place, fascinating historical details of dress, manners, and American family life... An excellent read." - A. V. Denham, author of Czar's Man

"In this well-researched book, Nicastro cannily reveals just enough about Nell’s death to make readers uneasy until just before the wistful conclusion... The author skilfully makes his point that one misdeed produces many victims. The author continues his successful run of historical fiction with this thought-provoking crime tale." - Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Nicholas Nicastro...

"Murder, mayhem, and deception stain the Kansas prairie in this historical novel of the Old West...A heavenly retelling of a hellish tale." — Kirkus Reviews, on Hell’s Half-Acre

"The Passion of the Ripper is a disturbing, engrossing tale. Nicastro takes you to hell and back with the larger than life mystery - and the man - behind the name Jack the Ripper." - Douglas Clegg, author of Neverland

Nicholas Nicastro was born in Astoria, New York in 1963. He has a B.A. in English from Cornell, an M.F.A. in film-making from New York University, an M.A. in archaeology and a Ph.D in psychology from Cornell. His writings include short fiction, travel and science articles. Among his published novels are The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta; The Passion of the Ripper; Empire of Ashes: A Novel of Alexander the Great; Antigone’s Wake: A Novel of Imperial Athens; Hell’s Half-Acre: A Novel.

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