However, as I set up the story line
for my novel, many changes needed to be made to the actual Ratcliffe mystery to
fit my manuscript. Most importantly, the Ratcliffe murders occurred in December
1811. In my books, Major General Fitzwilliam (Colonel Fitzwilliam in the
original Pride and Prejudice) married Miss Georgiana Darcy right after Napoleon
escaped from Elba and right before the Major General returned to serve with
Wellington at Waterloo. That means my story is set in 1816.
The Major General and Mrs. Fitzwilliam
have been married sixteen months and are the parents of a daughter. The major
general resigned his commission and became a landed gentleman in Oxfordshire.
Yet, doing so brings Fitzwilliam no success for 1816 was the “Year Without
Summer,” when the ash from
the Mount Tambora eruption spread across Europe, England and America,
disturbing the weather and disrupting crops. Fitzwilliam knew much success as
an Army officer, and this “failure” plays hard with his
nature.
I used the concept of the mass
hysteria associated with the Ratcliffe Murders in this book. What would happen if
several gruesome murders occur in Wapping? What if the prime suspect is the son
of an earl? Would justice prevail? Would the victims, part of the poor of
London, know justice? There are bits of Jack the Ripper-like hysteria in the
tale.
