Mystery and Crime Baring-Gould, Sabine: The Broom-Squire (illus). v1. 25 Dec 2021

[GrannyGrump]

Set in the Surrey area of southeast England and rich in local color, this dark Victorian gothic novel gives an account of a vicious murder that leaves an infant orphaned.

“A sailor carrying a small baby is seen to enter a wayside inn, where he meets three men who follow him from the inn and murder and rob him. The baby and dead man are found later by Jonas Kink, the broom-squire, so called because he is one of a settlement of squatters whose chief industry is broom-making. Eventually Mehetabel the foundling marries Jonas.” … His dark side manifests as he builds up terror in the mind of his young wife, culminating in attempted infanticide.
(— adapted from Goodreads)

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The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) was an Anglican priest, antiquarian and folklorist, novelist, and eclectic scholar. One of the most prolific and popular writers of the late-Victorian period, he wrote more than 150 books and contributed countless magazine articles. His folkloric studies resulted in The Book of Were-Wolves (1865), one of the most frequently cited studies of lycanthropy; followed by numerous volumes on other arcane subjects. He is remembered particularly as a writer of hymns, the best-known being “Onward, Christian Soldiers.”

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The Broom-Squire, by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924), was first published in 1896. Illustrations by Frank Dadd (1851–1929). Cover illustration from painting by Francisco Herrera the Elder (1576–1656) [Wikimedia Commons]. This ebook is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+90” or less, and in the USA.
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