The Crime and the Criminal

This early work by Richard Marsh was originally published in 1899 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. In the first part of this split narrative, Thomas Tennant finds himself in the same train compartment with Ellen Howth, a woman from his past. He leaves the carriage while the train is still moving, but 'Nelly' falls out instead. When a woman's body is found by the railway line, Tennant assumes she has died and accepts the guilt. The second narrator is Reginald Townsend, who has strangled his mistress under the railway arches. Nelly takes up the story, relating how she has argued with Tennant, fallen out of the train, and witnessed the murder. Richard Marsh - or otherwise known as Richard Bernard Heldmann - was born in England in 1857. Heldmann began publishing fiction during 1880, in the form of boys' school and adventure stories, for magazine publications. A best-selling and prolific author of the late 19th century and the Edwardian period, Marsh is best known now for his supernatural thriller novel The Beetle, which was published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).