Geary's nonfiction series A Treasury of Victorian Murder marches on with the story of a mid-nineteenth-century crime that rocked Europe and North America, primarily because the accused seemed the quintessential faux-innocent femme fatale. In 1855 Madeleine Smith, a prosperous Scottish architect's daughter, apparently poisoned her poor, clandestine lover to clear the way for marriage to a wealthy merchant. Despite extremely telling circumstantial evidence, the case against her received the verdict, unique to Scotland, of "Not Proven," which implied that the all-male jury didn't disbelieve that she was guilty. She moved to London with her elder brother, married an associate of the Pre-Raphaelites, bore two children who became nonconformist adults, divorced, moved to New York, married again, survived her second husband, and was listed as 64 when she died at 93. Popular novels, plays, and movies, notably David Lean's film Madeleine, have been based on the case, but it's hard to imagine any of them presenting it more amusingly, thoroughly, and succinctly than does Geary's trademark droll counterpointing of narration and image.

Gr 7 Up-Gearys story, set in 19th-century Scotland, tells of the scandalous affair between an upper-class woman and a lower-class man that ended with his gruesome death. Smith was an architects daughter and the graduate of a London finishing school. Emile LAnglier was a seed merchants son, a clerk with a history of bad relationships. Their attraction to one another was instantaneous, and they began to correspond. The book is filled with excerpts from their letters; as much as Madeleine pushed Emile away, she clearly needed him, since nearly 200 of her letters were later found in his possessions. But their love was doomed because of the tension involved in keeping their relationship private. After years of turmoil, Madeleine became engaged to another man and Emile threatened to send her letters to her father. The poisoning began in cups of hot chocolate that she gave to Emile. The pen-and-ink images artfully convey this gripping story, notably in the scene in which the lovers eyes first meet and later when a veiled Madeleine walks up a staircase through a door in the courtroom floor. This book maintains the level of excellence set by the other volumes in this series, and would be an asset to any collection. Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library