Could A Novel Lead Someone To Kill? 'Murder By The Book' Explores The Notion
Author Claire Harman writes that one reason François Benjamin Courvoisier gave for why he murdered his boss Lord William Russell in 1840 was that he wanted to model himself on a book character.
The scene could have come from a novel: an unlocked door, a screaming maid, and an "unobtrusive minor aristocrat" lying in bed with his throat cut.
It was 1840, and Lord William Russell had lived quietly, with no apparent enemies: "'Aged and respected,' he was called in the , like a cheese," writes Claire Harman in her wry, sharp . "It is almost an unparalleled thing for a person
