crimes of passion

"Through court and asylum records, letters and newspaper accounts, this book brings to life some sensational trials between 1870 and 1914, a period when the psychiatric professions were consolidating their hold on our understanding of what is human. Outside fiction, individual emotions and the inner life had rarely been publicly discussed: now, in an increasingly popular press and its courtroom reports, people avidly consumed accounts of transgressive sexuality, savage jealousy, and forbidden desires. These stood revealed as aspects not only of those labelled mad, but potentially, of everyone."--Dust jacket.

Relates the story of a New England family's struggle to survive the throes of tragedy.

Reprint of a 1934 novel about a drifter who embarks on a course of destruction when he falls for the wife of Nick, the genial owner of a roadside cafe.

Examination of murders that have involved passion including Jean Harris murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower.

Lila Wheeler returns to her childhood home in New Hampshire to investigate the crime of passion involving her older brothers, Aaron and Jack, and Aaron's mysterious girlfriend, Suzanne, that took place there ten years earlier.

The title case is an account of the life and crimes of Dr. Anthony Pignataro, a cosmetic surgeon with a penchant for forged credentials, botched surgeries, to the attempted arsenic poisoning of his wife. Four other true cases follow.