Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey

By: Bland Simpson
Narrated by: Bland Simpson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

As compelling as fiction, The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey tells the dramatic story of the disappearance of nineteen-year-old Nell Cropsey from her riverside home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in November 1901. Bloodhounds, detectives, divers, and even a psychic were brought in to search for her, and the case immediately became a national sensation. Bland Simpson, who first heard the tale as an Elizabeth City schoolboy, weaves this true story into a colorful nonfiction account, told in three first-person voices: Nell's sister Ollie; famous newspaper editor W. O. Saunders, who covered the case as a young reporter; and Jim Wilcox, Nell's beau, who was implicated in the case. Nell and Jim's romance, her disappearance, the great search, the trials, and their aftermath are artfully reconstructed from interviews, court records, and newspaper accounts.

©2017 Bland Simpson (P)2022 The University of North Carolina Press
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Crooked Snake cover art
Daughter of the White River cover art
A Long Way from Home cover art
Butcher's Work cover art
The Town cover art
The Last Lynching cover art
The River We Remember cover art
These Honored Dead cover art
California Gold cover art
This Mortal Boy cover art
The Meaning of Our Tears cover art
Murder in Little Egypt cover art
Murder at Teal's Pond cover art
Ella Maud cover art
A Free Man of Color cover art
The Burning cover art

Critic reviews

"Simpson persuasively re-creates the decorously frenzied, boomtown atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Elizabeth City in the grip of a tabloid mystery complete with bloodhounds, anonymous tipsters, and a famous spiritualist."—Kirkus Reviews

"An arresting and elegant meditation on guilt and innocence and the inscrutability of human behavior."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"In The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey, Simpson weaves a compelling story of beauty and despair."—Richmond Times-Dispatch

What listeners say about The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.