The boldness and utter callousness [of] ... their criminal activities seems to have been equalled only by the stupidity of ... their victims.”
The midwife—known to all as Auntie Suzy—was a “smiling buddha” with a waddling gait, who kept a secret vial stashed in her apron pocket. She bustled through the village, poking her nose into her neighborwomen’s troubled lives, whispered “Why are you bothering with him? I have a way …”
"One hell of a story" - The Spectator
"Particularly evocative" - The Economist
"Compulsively readable" - PW, starred review
"Dramatic and compassionate ... simply excellent" - Booklist, Top 10 Best True Crime Books of the Year
"Patti McCracken brings to life this long-forgotten tale in a grimly gripping narrative" - Financial Times, Best Summer Reads
"The Angel Makers is a testament to McCracken's prowess as a storyteller" - ON magazine
"Criminally good" - Spotify
"The Angel Makers may be foremost the story of one of the most successful poison conspiracies in our history. But as Patti McCracken makes clear in this fascinating book, it's much more than that -- a tale of secrets and superstition, of faith and betrayal, and of the surprising ways that killers can live invisibly among us. As such, it's both an addictively readable book and a wonderfully insightful one." - Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poisoner's Handbook, Deborah Blum
"McCracken's background as a journalist is clear in her approach to the story and its telling. Readers will be transported through the story."
- Library Journal
"The only thing more astonishing than Auntie Suzy's murder ring is author McCracken's skill in pairing a reporter's magpie eye for detail with truly first class storytelling. The result is ... a truly entertaining single-sitting read." - Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
TIBOR POLYA'S LINK TO THE ANGEL MAKERS
There was a very active artists' colony in Szolnok during the Angel Makers’ time. Attorney Kronberg, a pretty good artist in his own right, used to carry a sketch pad in his briefcase. He was well-liked at the colony and was apparently very good friends with Tibor Pólya, one of Hungary’s most revered artists of ...
Read MoreDROPPING ACID ... ON GRAVES
Once investigators had descended on the village, many women were desperate to stop graves from being disturbed and bodies being exhumed. They surely did not want autopsies, but many also had more immediate concerns about leftover arsenic that had been buried with the victims. They knew once the coffin was popped open, there it would be.
Read MoreARTHUR STROHSCHNEIDER
ABOVE IT ALL
“Dandy would trot off, tail wagging, toward the merchants who had set up at the weekly market on the square. He would dodge under the baskets and bags of shoppers, scoot past the tub makers and the children jockeying for bottles of homemade lemonade. He’d pass under the Austrian tightrope walker, who had fastened his highwire ...
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