We’re kicking off the week with the exciting news that Jeremy Craddock‘s The Jigsaw Murders has been longlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction in the Crime Writers’ Association annual awards. The Jigsaw Murders is an illuminating and extensively researched account of the murder of Isabella Ruxton and her children’s nanny Mary, and the forensic advances that led investigators to the perpetrator: Isabella’s husband Dr Buck Ruxton. The History Press published The Jigsaw Murders in May 2021.

The CWA Daggers celebrate the best in crime fiction and non-fiction each year.

The true story of the shocking 1930s murder case, and the revolutionary investigation that changed forensics forever.

Lancaster, 1935. In a jealous rage, Dr Buck Ruxton kills his wife, Isabella, and their children’s nanny, Mary, before dismembering the bodies in the bathtub. When walkers discover the remains scattered in a ravine in the Scottish Borders, police are confronted with a gruesome jigsaw puzzle that they must piece together – not only to give the women their names back, but also to catch their killer.

Using new research, Jeremy Craddock tells the full story of this landmark case in British criminal history for the first time. The Jigsaw Murders brings to life Dr Ruxton, the investigators, the legal figures, and silent witnesses Isabella and Mary – recreating the dramatic scenes that shook the world.

Jeremy Craddock was a journalist and crime reporter in the north west of England for 23 years. He now lectures in multimedia journalism at Manchester Metropolitan University. The Jigsaw Murders is his first book.