... excellent ... Jobb paints Cream convincingly as 'haughty and self-centered, a boorish young man who squandered his money' ... Despite his repugnant subject, Jobb’s excellent storytelling makes the book a pleasure to read. He evokes the 'plank sidewalks and muddy streets' of London, Ontario, as skillfully as he does the 'netherworld of flickering gaslight and sinister fog' of London, England. Judicious shifts in time period, from Cream’s early murders in the United States to his later spree in London, keep the narrative moving, while carefully chosen digressions into the histories of poison, surgery and law enforcement provide much needed breaks from the doctor. Jobb bolsters his narrative with fascinating supporting characters[.]
... fascinating ... Jobb has a talent for scene-setting ... Jobb uses a twin-ply narrative, switching between Canada and Britain, between the bulk of Cream’s life and his last two years, to heighten what is essentially a sad, sad story about a bad, bad man ... His life, in Jobb’s hands, is a splendidly atmospheric journey through the halls of Victorian vice, virtue and, above all, hypocrisy.
... engrossing ... With plentiful insights into why the authorities were slow to focus on Cream’s crimes, the book shows police departments and coroners jockeying for control over murder investigations ... The book also singles out heroes on the side of justice ... The result is an informative and entertaining true crime text.
... deeply absorbing ... Mr. Jobb constructs this Victorian-era chronicle with scrupulous authority, drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, courtroom testimony, police files and museum archives ... Mr. Jobb has structured his book to maximize drama and suspense ... Mr. Jobb gives each of the dozens of characters involved—coppers, victims, doctors, judges—their due attention. The author ably parses social, legal and forensic matters while placing Cream’s biography in the context of its time. The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream is an admirable piece of work, a model for its kind. One can only be grateful that Cream was caught before he added more victims to its pages.
Dean Jobb...includes a good walkthrough of Victorian-era murder mysteries, how well Cream’s true-crime story fit that genre, and thus how his trial became a media sensation ... Sadly, the lack of detail about their lives means the women are somewhat indistinguishable from one another in the book, and the effect is the further devaluation of their lives ... The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream does not follow a typical chronology ... This structure is interesting initially, as the reader wants to know more about the killer’s background. However, Cream’s trial and execution, which should be the climax of the story, fall somewhat flat as the key details have already been revealed. Unfortunately, Jobb is not able to provide satisfying answers to the question of why Cream became a serial killer beyond tantalizing clues ... an entertaining read, but it does not provide new information on how someone so 'normal' could choose such a horrifying path.
... fascinating ... How had a good Presbyterian boy, who sang in the church choir and taught Sunday school in his teens, turned into such a depraved debauchee? The truth is no one knows, but Jobb does a good job of laying out possible explanations ... In the end he was betrayed by his distinctive handwriting. The letters Cream sent to potential blackmail victims revealed knowledge that only the poisoner could have known. The smile he had maintained throughout numerous inquests and trials—all vividly related by Jobb—was finally wiped off his face.
Jobb writes clean, efficient sentences and re-creates Cream’s heartless life in short, highly dramatic chapters. Though subtitled The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, his book could be described more accurately as Scotland Yard’s quest for the evidence that would convict the one man they suspected all along.
Jobb...does a masterful job of following the investigation, which ranged from England to the United States to Canada, and of presenting Dr. Cream not merely as a murderer, but as a complex, unstable, and deeply fascinating individual. True crime doesn’t get any better than this.
Jobb...provides the definitive account of serial poisoner Thomas Neill Cream in this enthralling real-life thriller ... Jobb nicely places this grim story in context, as Cream’s London trial created a precedent for the admission of similar uncharged crimes as evidence and exposed massive Scotland Yard failures that left Cream free to kill more people until he was finally apprehended. Jobb’s extensive research pays off in a true-crime masterpiece that will easily sit alongside The Devil in the White City.
A lively account ... Jobb richly embellishes his grim central tale with carefully researched setting, detail, and social mores of the late Victorian era, elegantly contrasted with his eponymous fiend ... A vivid, engaging revival of a forgotten Victorian villain.
