Number 4 Euston Square was a respectable boarding house, well-kept and hospitable until the corpse of former resident, Matilda Hacker, is uncovered by chance in the coal cellar. "Number 4, Euston Square, seemingly so prosperous, well-run and attractive, was a boarding house filled with unease; a house that was restless at night; a house with secrets, soon it would seem like some gigantic goll's house, open to examination by the entire nation."

Victorian-era London + murder + multiple admissions to Colney Hatch asylum. This is 100% the kind of book I want to have approved via Netgalley but has, sadly, not lived up to the expectations and hype I created for it in my head. I keep typing and deleting the explanation for why I'm going 3 stars because there are so many facets in McKay's work that could push it to 4 stars, but I sound mean in trying to explain them.

McKay has a sensible writing style - it isn't overwrought and isn't dry (though there are moments when the style starts to deteriorate). It is obvious that McKay is a talented writer, but the story itself and the remaining available information is scant. The lack of information is often the downfall of those of us researching this era (and earlier) and in this case, it has undermined the project. So much of what readers want to know cannot be obtained and shared and so the mystery remains unsolved. I'm grateful for the work McKay has done and this should be celebrated. I also know, from personal experience how infuriating it can be to have the answer lie a few lost documents away.

Readers should be aware that "Murder at 4, Euston Square" and "The Lady in the Cellar" are the same title.

Thank you to Netgalley for approving me for a free copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I love true crime and Victorian times so this book is right up my alley.

The story is intriging to say the least. The author did amazing research getting information from police interviews, court transpcripts and newspaper articles. The pacing was wonderful and turned into a quick read for me.

All in all I really enjoyed this book. I will be looking for more from this author.

Oh this was good. So, so good. I couldn’t put it down. I love a mystery but this had so many twists and turns I just couldn’t guess who did it. I absolutely loved it. Very well researched, extremely well written. Thank you for letting me review this book. I thoroughly recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great read, i didnt want to put it down! I would recommend this to my friends and family

I didn't realise when I requested this one that it was a book I had read before under a different title. Here's my review from the original read anyway:

When a body is found in the cellar of 4 Euston Square, in Victorian London it sets off a chain reaction of far reaching consequences. Matilda Hacker was an eccentric older lady who rented a room at no. 4 - the home of the Bastendorff family. She was only there a matter of weeks before suddenly taking her leave and disappearing. Did the Bastendorffs have something to do with her disappearance or was their maid, the last person to see Ms Hacker alive, involved?

Victorian Britain is one of my favourite eras to read about and this book was not a disappointment. I thoroughly enjoyed this reconstruction of the events and characters that appeared in this true crime account. The level of research was plain to see in the detail that was provided by the author, but it never became dry and dull to read. On the contrary, the twists of the court case and the fallout were enthralling. The only criticism I have is that the conclusion seemed a little rushed to me but this is a minor quibble overall.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion Publishing, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

Interest and well written book. I will definitely be on the lookout for more by this author. Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Murder at No. 4 Euston Square: The Mystery of the Lady in the Cellar by Sinclair McKay is just the kind of true crime I enjoy: historical, full of intrigue, and the well-researched work of an experienced historian. Not only is this crime compelling, but McKay does not miss a single detail in his account of a baffling murder that goes far beyond a simple whodunit.

The text centers on a four storey Victorian building at No. 4 Euston Square in London, England. Owned and operated by the Bastendorffs, the building served—as many did in the nineteenth century—as a boarding house for either long- or short-term travellers. The Bastendorffs, Severin Bastendorff a German immigrant, felt that their financial and social prospects were good in the spring of 1879. However, on the 9 May that year, things changed and suddenly the darker, very private business of the Bastendorffs, as well as the business of their staff and lodgers, would come under uncomfortable scrutiny. In the coal cellar of the boarding house, the nearly skeletal remains of local eccentric Matilda Hacker were found buried underneath a large pile of coal. Hacker was a former tenant at the Bastendorff’s lodging house, and one who, the household reported, had mysteriously and suddenly left her rooms. Left to decompose for some time, questions immediately arose as to who would have had the motive, means, and opportunity to commit this crime. Scotland Yard eventually zeroed in on the occupants of the house on Euston Square.

The research throughout this book is impeccable. Not only does McKay rely extensively on personal and public documents from the period of the murder and the surrounding years, but there is also a clear effort to paint a broader picture of Victorian culture at the time. The social, political, and financial positions of the players in this story are rendered in minute detail to give a real sense of the conflicts and motivations that certain characters might have faced. While the broad strokes of this story are compelling on their own, McKay peels back the façade of No. 4 Euston Square to reveal the inner workings of a home with a dark secret that belies gentility. McKay recounts the various narrative stereotypes present in the literary culture of the time around boarding houses and their various archetypes; the proliferation of these types, the text posits,

…struck at the very heart of the nature of the boarding house; in the early and mid-Victorian years, with an expanding middle class, there was a concomitant rising sense that the ideal home should be a detached sanctuary: a place where one family dwelled under one roof, in domestic stability, sheltered in every sense from the chaos of the world. Rising middle-class affluence brought a rising taste for privacy. The boarding house, by contrast, introduced a measure of enforced proximity with strangers; total privacy was a practical impossibility (51).

A subtle strength in McKay’s text is the setup of various binaries that are constantly troubled throughout the case: private and public, inside and outside, passive and active. For Victorians, McKay points out, the rise of the nineteenth-century lodging house began to confuse the boundaries of public/private space. By letting strangers into your home to live, work, and eat, and in-effect by then creating a form of business within the home, the public/private boundaries that the Victorians championed were no longer so simple. McKay’s text narrates the worst-case-scenario of this kind of fear: murder and all of the twists and turns that follow the investigation.

However, McKay’s text is not a simple one and the crime does not have a simple answer. Hacker’s murder is the catalyst for a number of discoveries, accusations, and indictments; the residents of No. 4 each point fingers at each other and a larger scandal of sex, money, and violence emerges. Drawing on trial records and the press coverage of the salacious case from the period, McKay expertly leads the reader through the twists and turns in this case—even when we aren’t sure who we should believe.

Murder at No. 4 Euston Square is essential reading for anyone interested in historical true crime with fascinating twists, and for anyone compelled by the social and cultural landscape of the nineteenth century.

Please add Murder at No. 4 Euston Square to your Goodreads shelf.

Don’t forget to follow True Crime Index on Twitter and please visit our Goodreads for updates on what we’re reading! You can find Rachel on her personal @RachelMFriars or on Goodreads @Rachel Friars.

About the Writer:

Rachel M. Friars (she/her) is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a BA and an MA in English Literature with a focus on neo-Victorianism and adaptations of Jane Eyre. Her current work centers on neo-Victorianism and nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, with secondary research interests in life writing, historical fiction, true crime, popular culture, and the Gothic. Her academic writing has been published with Palgrave Macmillan and in The Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies. She is a reviewer for The Lesbrary, the co-creator of True Crime Index, and an Associate Editor and Social Media Coordinator for PopMeC Research Collective. Rachel is co-editor-in-chief of the international literary journal, The Lamp, and regularly publishes her own short fiction and poetry. Find her on Twitter and Goodreads.

A copy of this book was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Such an interesting and well researched book. I love True Crime so this was a perfect read for me.

The story was written in such a different way so it kept the reader hooked until the end.

Mystery, Madness And Murder Abound…
Mystery, madness and murder abound in this meticulously researched account of a true crime in Victorian London. It’s an altogether dark but fascinating tale presented in an altogether readable fashion with an interesting evaluation of the available evidence.

This is a beautifully written piece of historical true crime. I realized as the book unfolded tat I was already familiar with this crime so it was especially interesting to read something so researched about it. It lagged a bit in the middle but ended well. I’d read more by this author.

Just to clarify in the beginning: this is an unsolved crime. The case mostly consists of gossip and slander and the court hearings become a bit repetitive.
I think this novel is easy to get into and it kinda reads like a blend of historical fiction and true crime. The preface also helps to get familiar with the setting.
This book packs a lot of information, and I mean a lot. It's clear that the author did their research. But this is simultaneously its biggest problem. Though this works in the beginning, because it helps creating an imagery, it becomes overbearing to include everything, even if it isn't directly connected to the case. The information gives you a bigger picture of that time period, but also drives you further from the actual murder. This doesn't make it a bad book, but for me it makes it a less enjoyable reading experience.

I received an advance copy of, Murder at No.4 Euston Square, by Sinclair McKay. This is a very interesting mystery. There is a lot of history, secrets and murder at No.4 Euston Square.

I found this interesting and Informative. I had no previous knowledge but I was completely taken in by the story. I do love victorian London true crime and this did not disappoint.

On May 9th, 1879, at No. 4, Euston Square boarding house a body was found in the coal cellar by the errand boy. The house was run by the Bastendorffs. The obvious crime was investigated by Inspector Hagen of the CID. The body was so grotesquely decomposed that it made identification very difficult. It was eventually identified as Matilda Hacker, who was a previous tenant. The book follows the investigation and is a rather good true crime read. It contains some good information on this Victorian-age murder and is well researched. I really enjoy this type of old British true crime book. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Sinclair McKay, and the publisher.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Aarum Press for providing me with a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the spirit of honesty, I should say that I have read this book before under its other title - The Lady in the Cellar - and I really enjoyed it. I love reading about Victorian England true crime cases, and this book not only focuses on the crime, but on life within the boarding house world in central London where class and status meant everything and sex was a four letter word. It also delves a little bit into what life was like as a servant, which I found super interesting.

It was clear both times I’ve read this that the author has put a lot of time into researching boarding houses, and centering this little-known murder makes the discussion all the more interesting and poignant - after all, the woman was missing for a lengthy period of time and there was nobody who cared enough to make waves about finding her, the lives of the landlords (and their wider family) at No. 4 were destroyed, and society seemed more interested in lurid detail than in the truth.

I also liked how the author has provided a couple of well thought out scenarios to present what they feel has likely happened, since there are competing stories and the truth will now never be revealed.

An absolutely fascinating look into a segment of Victorian London life and definitely worth a read for true crime or history buffs.

Interesting little read, very well written.

Is there any easier way of these being added to kindle, as Netgalley shelf makes things so much harder to read

Suspense, horror, unanswered questions, layer upon layer of mystery and suspicion abound in this chilling book, giving me tingly goosebumps. Why? It is a true crime story about real people. At No. 4 Euston Square in Victorian London, a tasteful boarding house with a respectable address is the scene of something so sinister, so awful that it grabs the unwanted attention (though seemingly wanted by one) and imagination of people all over. This neighbourhood was known to be that of intellectuals. But what happens one day defies all logic...an boy preparing for coal delivery discovers something that would shatter everything from reputations to lives. Who was the body? Why was it there and how did it get there? And when?

The writing is brilliant, drawing on copious quotations of the real case. I appreciate the background history of boarding houses, industry, occupations and mentions of brilliant minds such as Thomas Hardy which sets thing up perfectly. The Bastendorff family who owned the boarding house were respected furniture builders. Mary and Severin had many children and it was Mary's responsibility to operate the boarding house and take in boarders. Their lives quickly turned upside down as the family members were suspect for various reasons. But there were other players including staff and boarders, past and present. I could almost taste the tension as people were pitted against each other. Inspector Charles Hagen thoroughly investigated and had his views. But so did others. So do I.

Mysteries within mysteries abound including allegations of impropriety, kleptomania and madness. If you are even minutely fascinated by Victorian era true crime, this riveting book is an absolute must. It prompted me to do further research and I could not stop mulling it over today.

My sincere thank you to Quarto Publishing Group, White Lion and NetGalley for the privilage of reading this remarkable, REMARKABLE book!

Sorry I was unable to read this due to not being able to be downloaded to my kindle. Hopefully others can review

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

I wish that this was available to be on my Kindle however it was a very interesting read. A ton of info on a topic that I really didn't know that much about. Plus a great presentation.