Description
In 1919 Mrs. Greenwood died in her home in Kidwelly. It was sudden, but the doctor put it down to heart failure. The nurse thought otherwise.
A few months later, Harold Greenwood, her husband, married a much younger woman. Tongues began to wag. The police investigated.
Arsenic was found in the corpse. Greenwood had the means, opportunity and motive. The jury at the inquest found him guilty. He was put on trial for the murder of his wife.
But was he guilty? Did a flawed investigation lead to a miscarriage of justice?
This is the first full length meticulously researched book about this mystery, set in the 1920s in the social world that could have been that of an Agatha Christie story.
Review by the Rev’d Fr. J. W. Flanagan BA (hons), Bth. (Vicar of Kidwelly, Mynydd y Garreg & Llandyfaelog, Area Dean – Bro Cydweli Ministry Area)
Despite the passing of over a century, the death of Mabel Greenwood and the subsequent trial of her husband still causes interest in the community of Kidwelly and remains for some an emotional subject. Dr. Oates book is a well-researched, thought provoking and well considered account of the murder and the events surrounding it. The case is still reasonably well known and works on it have been published before, but Dr. Oates seems to have produced what in my humble opinion is the definitive work on the case. A gripping, deep and thoroughly enjoyable account of the events of one hundred years past, well-balanced and very thought provoking book that brings to life the events that shocked a close-knit community. One has to wonder that if those that were involved in the investigation and trial were as thorough as the Author, the outcome of this case may have been quite different.
