SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 NED KELLY AWARD, DANGER PRIZE AND WAVERLEY LIBRARY NIBTrue history that is both shocking and too real, this unforgettable tale moves at the pace of a great crime novel.In the early hours of Saturday morning, 17 November 1923, a suitcase was found washed up on the shore of a small beach in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. What it contained - and why - would prove to be explosive.The murdered baby in the suitcase was one of many dead infants who were turning up in the harbour, on trains and elsewhere. These innocent victims were a devastating symptom of the clash between public morality, private passion and unrelenting poverty in a fast-growing metropolis.Police tracked down Sarah Boyd, the mother of the suitcase baby, and the complex story and subsequent murder trial of Sarah and her friend Jean Olliver became a media sensation. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton masterfully tells the engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy that still resonates through the decades.**Includes an extract from Tanya's next fascinating and chilling true crime story, THE SUICIDE BRIDE**
Publisher: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9780733641466
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 240 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 26 mm
Bretherton's unflinching fact-finding is what makes this book throb. - Australian Women's Weekly
A pacy tale recommended for history lovers. - Law Society Journal
Paralleling the escalating love of crime fiction is an intense interest in real life crime, and The suitcase baby falls into this realm, a non fiction book telling a story of a horrible crime, but at the same time showing the background that led to this murder and others like it. - ReadPlus
Tanya Bretherton tells the moving story of an explosive and unforgettable mystery. - Woman's Day
It is a chilling story that made headlines and is recounted in simple, often moving writing. - Sunday Canberra Times
One of the most fascinating crime books I've read. - wellthy
While poignantly detailing the terrible lack of support for single mothers and their babies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this book provides a balanced account. - Weekend Australian
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