Paul Thomas Murphy

http://www.shootingvictoria.com

Paul Thomas Murphy is the author of Shooting Victoria, a New York Times notable book for 2012, and Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane, a 2017 Edgar Award finalist for True Fact Crime. 

He holds advanced degrees in Modern History and in English Literature from Oxford and McGill Universities, and from the University of Colorado, where he has taught both literature and writing. He currently resides in the foothills outside Boulder, Colorado.

Books by Paul Thomas Murphy

Image of Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy
Image of Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane: A True Story of Victorian Law and Disorder: The Unsolved Murder that Shocked Victorian England

Book Reviews by Paul Thomas Murphy

Image of Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals
Author(s):
Ken Follett
Genre(s):
History, British, Architecture

Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals

November 19, 2019
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

“For the love of Notre-Dame, this is the book you want.”

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Image of Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens's London
Author(s):
Claire Harman
Genre(s):
True Crime, British, European, History of Literature, History

Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens's London

March 25, 2019
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

Claire Harman’s Murder by the Book begins in chaos and mystery: the body of 73-year-old aristocrat Lord William Russell is discovered in his own bed in his Mayfair mansion, hi

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Image of Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household
Author(s):
Adrian Tinniswood
Genre(s):
History, British, Biography, Autobiography & Memoir, Royalty

Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household

October 1, 2018
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

On June 21, 1969, an estimated three-quarters of the British population tuned into Royal Family, a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary that captured the royals as surprisingly ord

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Image of Devil's Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery
Author(s):
Alice Sparberg Alexiou
Genre(s):
United States, Biography, Autobiography & Memoir, History

Devil's Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery

July 23, 2018
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

“Alice Sparberg Alexiou makes us miss the Bowery— more than we ever knew we could.”

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Image of Making Oscar Wilde
Author(s):
Michele Mendelssohn
Genre(s):
Biography, Autobiography & Memoir, Authors, Historical

Making Oscar Wilde

July 16, 2018
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

First things first: Michèle Mendelssohn’s Making Oscar Wilde is not a biography.

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Image of Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
Author(s):
Stacy Horn
Genre(s):
Exercise & Fitness, Political & Social Science, Counseling

Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York

May 14, 2018
Reviewed by: 
Paul Thomas Murphy

In her 1883 poem “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus gave the Statue of Liberty a voice and gave her a stance toward the world’s refugees that puts our own to shame: welcoming unreservedl

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