A biography of Dr Crippen who is remembered as the quarry in a thrilling chase which ended in his capture in 1910. His mistress Ethel Leneve, who was disguised as a boy, had become the object of a world-wide hue and cry after the headless, armless torso of Mrs Crippen had been found buried beneath a cellar floor. Crippen was hanged, but certain aspects of the case were never cleared up. He had endured Mrs Crippen's shrewishness and her infidelities for 17 years. But Ethel had been his mistress for three years with the wife's knowledge. Cullen maintains that Crippen's love for Ethel Leneve, for whom he risked his life, does much to transform what otherwise would have been just another sordid crime passionel.