THE GREATEST CRIMINAL THAT EVER LIVED: A Barrister's Defence

THE GREATEST CRIMINAL THAT EVER LIVED: A Barrister's Defence Victorian London, 1862. When respected barrister Montagu Williams takes on the defence of Catherine Wilson—a nurse accused of murdering her elderly patients with poison—he expects a difficult case. What he doesn't expect is to defend what the judge will privately call "the greatest criminal that ever lived." As Williams investigates, a chilling pattern emerges: seven or eight suspicious deaths, convenient bequests, symptoms that mimic natural disease. Wilson presents herself as a respectable nurse, wrongly accused. But behind her composed facade, Williams glimpses something terrifying—a complete absence of conscience, a predator who weaponized trust itself. Bound by duty to provide vigorous defence even for clients he believes are guilty, Williams must argue for the life of a woman he suspects is a serial killer. The case will define his career, challenge everything he believes about justice, and force him to witness the last public execution of a woman in London—before a crowd of 20,000. Based on the true case of Victorian England's "nurse poisoner," this is a meditation on duty, evil, and the terrible burden of defending the indefensible.