Not a Gentleman's Work by Gerard Koeppel is a non-fiction, true crime book about the mysterious murders of Captain Charles Nash, his wife, Laura, and the second mate, Blomberg. Only three of the other men on the boat could have done it, but no one was sure who. Thomas Bram, the first mate, was convicted twice, but eventually released on parole and pardoned. Because of this, the case is now unsolved.
I don't know who did it, but it seems that many things were inaccurate and overlooked just because a rich, white man was there. Koeppel doesn't outright say who did it, but he gives good evidence about how and why Lester Monks, the passenger on the ship, and one of the men who could have committed the murder, was overlooked. He was from a wealthy, white, Bostonian family. Bram, who white passing and said he was white, had an African background, which everyone knew, so seems to be easily blamed for murders. Monks was able to speak for everyone else because he was white and spoke English. The other crewmen didn't speak English very well and the steward was black, so his testimony wasn't as highly valued.
I really enjoyed this book. I love true crime and I had never heard of these murders before. I am very interested in this case now, but besides this book there is hardly any information out there. Google brings up very few results and many of the bibliography references are in Boston. As it is a true crime book, there are graphic details of the three murders and even mentions of vomit. I would recommend this book if you like true crime and also like lesser known unsolved mysteries.
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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