Police officer turned author explores true crime stories of early modern Britain in debut book

“I think we are fascinated and at the same time repulsed by things that are difficult and scary,” says Adams. “In the early modern period murders were quite rare but when they happened, they got a lot of coverage – people are interested by something that is out of the ordinary.”

A former police officer with the Norfolk Constabulary, Adams swapped life on the beat for a move into academia and it was while she was researching her doctorate in early modern English law and literature at the University of East Anglia that the seeds of her book were sown. One case in particular caught her eye. It was the story of a young, single woman called Elizabeth Balleans who in 1609 was accused of murdering her child. In fact, the baby was stillborn. Stillbirth and miscarriage were common in that period but as Adams points out in her book ‘while married women were not held to be criminally culpable, unmarried women immediately fell under the spotlight of suspicion.’

“I was going through the inquest record for Elizabeth Balleans’ case and it felt more like a criminal investigation than a process to ascertain the cause of death,” she says. “I thought I would love to write about this someday and as soon as I finished my academic studies, I started looking into it further and at other cases. I cast my net quite wide and began reading about law and criminal investigation, murder and justice; then I started diving into the primary materials.” Those included coroner’s reports, court records, parish archives, letters, diaries and pamphlets. From these Adams painstakingly pieced together the nine stories that appear in the book.

“I found the pamphlets were a really good starting point,” she says. “And I would come across things while I was going through legal documents. I spent a lot of time going through secondary and primary materials – I was doing that for about a year. There were lots of cases I had to discard. I would start to research a case and not be able to find enough material to sustain a chapter, so there were quite a few dead ends.” The early modern period was a time of great change with developments in a number of areas, including the beginnings of forensic science which changed the nature of criminal investigation. “One of the things that stood out most to me was how sophisticated the early moderns could be in their approach to cases,” she says. “I was impressed by the level of detail of the forensic pathology.”

The stories featured include a race against time to catch a fugitive killer on the run in London, the mystery of an apparent suicide by drowning, the desperate measures of a mother trying to clear her daughter’s name, a theatrical courtroom battle as a lawyer defends himself against accusations of murder. The book is a real page-turner and totally compelling – Adams skilfully brings the stories vividly to life with great attention to detail while also drawing comparisons between those historical events and what is happening today. “I have been particularly interested in looking at how women have been treated in the courts and in law,” she says. “I read recently that in some states in America women have been prosecuted for miscarrying. So I guess my book reflects how far we have come in some ways and how in others we still have a long way to go.”

Great and Horrible News is published by William Collins. Blessin Adams appears with Wendy Joseph KC, a former judge at the Old Bailey and author of Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder, Trials at the Old Bailey, at Leeds Central Library, April 20, 6.30pm. leedsinspired.co.uk