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A Scandal In Bohemia
An unsolved murder takes one of Australia’s foremost writers of non-fiction into the 1930s Bohemian demi-monde, exploring the fate of a talented young woman trying to make her way in that artistic, sexualised, ‘liberated’ world.
As enigmatic in life as in death, Mollie Dean was a woman determined to transcend. Creatively ambitious and sexually precocious, at twenty-five she was a poet, aspiring novelist and muse on the peripheries of Melbourne’s bohemian salons – until one night in 1930 she was brutally slain by an unknown killer in a laneway while walking home.
Her family was implicated. Those in her circle, including her acclaimed artist lover Colin Colahan, were shamed. Her memory was anxiously suppressed. Yet the mystery of her death rendered more mysterious her life and Mollie’s story lingered, incorporated into memoir, literature, television, theatre and song, most notably in George Johnston’s classic My Brother Jack.
In A Scandal in Bohemia, Gideon Haigh explodes the true crime genre with a murder story about life as well as death. Armed with only a single photograph and echoes of Mollie’s voice, he has reassembled the precarious life of a talented woman without a room of her own – a true outsider, excluded by the very world that celebrated her in its art. In this work of restorative justice, Mollie Dean emerges as a tenacious, charismatic, independent woman for whom society had no place, and whom everybody tried to forget – but nobody could.
As enigmatic in life as in death, Mollie Dean was a woman determined to transcend. Creatively ambitious and sexually precocious, at twenty-five she was a poet, aspiring novelist and muse on the peripheries of Melbourne’s bohemian salons – until one night in 1930 she was brutally slain by an unknown killer in a laneway while walking home.
Her family was implicated. Those in her circle, including her acclaimed artist lover Colin Colahan, were shamed. Her memory was anxiously suppressed. Yet the mystery of her death rendered more mysterious her life and Mollie’s story lingered, incorporated into memoir, literature, television, theatre and song, most notably in George Johnston’s classic My Brother Jack.
In A Scandal in Bohemia, Gideon Haigh explodes the true crime genre with a murder story about life as well as death. Armed with only a single photograph and echoes of Mollie’s voice, he has reassembled the precarious life of a talented woman without a room of her own – a true outsider, excluded by the very world that celebrated her in its art. In this work of restorative justice, Mollie Dean emerges as a tenacious, charismatic, independent woman for whom society had no place, and whom everybody tried to forget – but nobody could.
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 4, 2018
15 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Gideon Haigh
100 books110 followersGideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport (especially cricket) and business. He was born in London, raised in Geelong, and now lives in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 15, 2021
This well researched and beautifully written book for me, falls in somewhere between history, true-crime and social commentary. Having recently read an excellent novel which fictionised Mollie Dean's life, 'bohemian' friend circle and ultimately her death, I was excited to find out more of the facts which inspired the novel.
This book has been meticulously researched and although the true life details of Mary Mollie Dean's life are pretty sparse, and it seems that the official records of her case really HAVE vanished from the achieves, this book makes up for it by the excellent description of Melbourne in the 1920's - 1930's and the Australian art scene.
Actually, as a hobby artist, I entirely enjoyed the descriptions of that scene. Mollie Dean was the mistress and the model for an artist named Colin Colahan, of whom I had heard, so the expanded knowledge this book gave me about his circle and his art was great. Max Meldrum caused a bit of a stir in the Melbourne art scene by rejecting the traditional art forms and starting a group who painted in a 'Tonalist' style although his followers were known at the time as Meldrumite.
Now Mollie herself was not a painter, she was an aspiring writer and this book gave an excellent background to her literary hopes and endeavours. It talks about her early education and her aspirations because while Mollie was an excellent teacher, what she wanted to be was a writer. This goal led her to make contact with many people who worked in various literary fields and that swept her along into acquaintance with painters and musicians also.
Who killed Mary Mollie Dean? The chances are we will never know. She was young, hungry for life and determined to make her mark on the world when she died, brutally bashed and scornfully mutilated in an alley as she made her way home late one night.
That 'home' however is one thing that makes the story suspicious to many (including the investigating police of the day) because she lived with her widowed mother who was at best cold and unloving. At worst, to be honest, she sounds totally unhinged. Her attitude to Mollie was odd, on one hand she tried to make her marry and acquaintance of theirs (who also appears to have been Mrs Dean's lover), she assaulted Mollie railed against her friends and lifestyle, followed her at times and inveigled her lover to also follow Mollie. She also wrote to literary contacts telling them to stay away from Mollie and ran off two young men who were perfectly respectable and interested in Mollie in a very traditional way. The woman sounds utterly Mad.
After Mollie was assaulted, when the police came to tell Mrs Dean, they found her up and fully dressed. They found her and her lover to both lie under questioning. But in the end, no one was brought to trial for Mollies death and another death quite like it never occurred. The author does look at other deaths of young women in the area and the time period, but no one ever admitted to Mollie's assault, and no other one quite like it ever took place.
Her lover Colahan, left for England not that long after her death, many artists from Australia did. He became a famous war artist and his story of the affair of Mollie Dean transmogrified into something extremely creative. His story inspired a very well known novel My Brother Jack by George Johnston though this was apparently based almost entirely of Colahan's telling. Solitude in Blue, a play by Melita Rowston reimagines Mollie's lover as another writer rather than a painter. Many, many other Australian literary endeavours can apparently be sourced to Mollie Dean's story, though few use her name or do her justice.
It is a very dark irony that Mollie Dean has indeed become famous, beyond her time and perhaps beyond anything she may have achieved by her evident talent as a writer. Ask one hundred Australians who Mollie Dean was, I am not sure many would know. But all the different magazine stories, plays, stories and novels she has inspired and that would be a different thing.
I thoroughly enjoyed, this very well written, very readable book which painted such a vivid picture of Melbourne of the 1930's and described Mollie Dean's life, times and ending so very readably.
This book has been meticulously researched and although the true life details of Mary Mollie Dean's life are pretty sparse, and it seems that the official records of her case really HAVE vanished from the achieves, this book makes up for it by the excellent description of Melbourne in the 1920's - 1930's and the Australian art scene.
Actually, as a hobby artist, I entirely enjoyed the descriptions of that scene. Mollie Dean was the mistress and the model for an artist named Colin Colahan, of whom I had heard, so the expanded knowledge this book gave me about his circle and his art was great. Max Meldrum caused a bit of a stir in the Melbourne art scene by rejecting the traditional art forms and starting a group who painted in a 'Tonalist' style although his followers were known at the time as Meldrumite.
Now Mollie herself was not a painter, she was an aspiring writer and this book gave an excellent background to her literary hopes and endeavours. It talks about her early education and her aspirations because while Mollie was an excellent teacher, what she wanted to be was a writer. This goal led her to make contact with many people who worked in various literary fields and that swept her along into acquaintance with painters and musicians also.
Who killed Mary Mollie Dean? The chances are we will never know. She was young, hungry for life and determined to make her mark on the world when she died, brutally bashed and scornfully mutilated in an alley as she made her way home late one night.
That 'home' however is one thing that makes the story suspicious to many (including the investigating police of the day) because she lived with her widowed mother who was at best cold and unloving. At worst, to be honest, she sounds totally unhinged. Her attitude to Mollie was odd, on one hand she tried to make her marry and acquaintance of theirs (who also appears to have been Mrs Dean's lover), she assaulted Mollie railed against her friends and lifestyle, followed her at times and inveigled her lover to also follow Mollie. She also wrote to literary contacts telling them to stay away from Mollie and ran off two young men who were perfectly respectable and interested in Mollie in a very traditional way. The woman sounds utterly Mad.
After Mollie was assaulted, when the police came to tell Mrs Dean, they found her up and fully dressed. They found her and her lover to both lie under questioning. But in the end, no one was brought to trial for Mollies death and another death quite like it never occurred. The author does look at other deaths of young women in the area and the time period, but no one ever admitted to Mollie's assault, and no other one quite like it ever took place.
Her lover Colahan, left for England not that long after her death, many artists from Australia did. He became a famous war artist and his story of the affair of Mollie Dean transmogrified into something extremely creative. His story inspired a very well known novel My Brother Jack by George Johnston though this was apparently based almost entirely of Colahan's telling. Solitude in Blue, a play by Melita Rowston reimagines Mollie's lover as another writer rather than a painter. Many, many other Australian literary endeavours can apparently be sourced to Mollie Dean's story, though few use her name or do her justice.
It is a very dark irony that Mollie Dean has indeed become famous, beyond her time and perhaps beyond anything she may have achieved by her evident talent as a writer. Ask one hundred Australians who Mollie Dean was, I am not sure many would know. But all the different magazine stories, plays, stories and novels she has inspired and that would be a different thing.
I thoroughly enjoyed, this very well written, very readable book which painted such a vivid picture of Melbourne of the 1930's and described Mollie Dean's life, times and ending so very readably.
August 18, 2019
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
Gideon Haigh, a well respected journalist and prolific non fiction author chronicles the life and death of Mollie Dean, a woman viciously attacked at the age of just twenty five years old in a laneway in Melbourne. Not only is A Scandal in Bohemia a thorough true crime investigation, it is also a biography and a rich glimpse into Melbourne’s art world in the 1930s. Factual, informative and meticulously researched, Haigh places a fresh set of eyes on a notorious cold case from Australia’s past.
After reading The Portrait of Molly Dean by Katherine Koviac, I found I really enjoyed the fictionalised account of Molly Dean’s life and her murder. I was eager to find out more about this fascinating historical case and I was lucky to be able to turn to my copy of A Scandal in Bohemia by Gideon Haigh. Published in 2018, the same year as The Portrait of Molly Dean, this non fiction book aims to give an account of the life and times of Mollie Dean.
When I first opened A Scandal in Bohemia I was immediately struck by just how many books Gideon Haigh has to his name. These non fiction titles range from historical true crime, to sports and political stories. Haigh’s range is incredible to say the least, and I feel a little guilty in not coming across his work before. After reading The Portrait of Molly Dean I was hungry for more information on this famous case and tragic figure. This book delivered, but as the focus was on facts and an overview of sources, there were times where it was quite dry.
Where Haigh really finds his groove in A Scandal in Bohemia is the through examination into 1930s Melbourne. Haigh opens our eyes to the Bohemian circle, and name drops plenty of well known figures. It can be a little hard to keep on top of all these notable figures! I did feel like I got to know the world in which Mollie Dean drifted in and out of, as well as the people she interacted with. It also gave me a good picture of Mollie as the aspiring writer she longed to be.
There is plenty of speculation about this case, which Haigh depicts well in A Scandal in Bohemia. Haigh has trawled through so many different records and sources in an attempt to give the reader a solid overview of the case. What amazed me the most but also disappointed me was Mrs Dean, Mollie’s mother, who clearly was guilty about something!
Another area that I found illuminating was Mollie’s legacy in the world of literature. Mollie’s case is loosely depicted in the book and screen version of My Brother Jack. Haigh also directs our interest to other books that focus on the Bohemian art set in Melbourne, who were closely linked to Mollie.
Haigh’s approach to this book is very methodical. A Scandal in Bohemia is structured clearly with seventeen separate chapters, along with an introduction, epilogue, acknowledgements, bibliography and image montage, at the half way point of the book. Haigh devotes the first half of the book to setting the scene for the tragedy that is to occur. He outlines Mollie’s background, family history and life leading up to her murder. Once the murder is discussed at the half way point in the book, plenty of information is hurled at the reader to decipher, in terms of suspects and what actually happened that fateful night. What surprised me the most about Haigh’s investigation into Mollie’s murder was the horrific details of the attack and how Mollie was not killed by her attacker, but left for dead, before she later passed away once authorities arrived on the scene. It is a sad and sorry state of affairs. It also is a complete waste of a life for a young woman who represented aspiration, intelligence and fearlessness.
A tribute to a woman who was in her prime when her life was tragically cut short, A Scandal in Bohemia offers a direct insight into the art world in Melbourne, the key figures that influenced this creative set, and their impact on Mollie Dean. Haigh’s approach to this complex but fascinating historical true crime case is sufficient enough to draw in the watchful eyes of Australian history buffs, art connoisseurs and crime enthusiasts. I’m still perplexed by the case of Mollie Dean…
Gideon Haigh, a well respected journalist and prolific non fiction author chronicles the life and death of Mollie Dean, a woman viciously attacked at the age of just twenty five years old in a laneway in Melbourne. Not only is A Scandal in Bohemia a thorough true crime investigation, it is also a biography and a rich glimpse into Melbourne’s art world in the 1930s. Factual, informative and meticulously researched, Haigh places a fresh set of eyes on a notorious cold case from Australia’s past.
After reading The Portrait of Molly Dean by Katherine Koviac, I found I really enjoyed the fictionalised account of Molly Dean’s life and her murder. I was eager to find out more about this fascinating historical case and I was lucky to be able to turn to my copy of A Scandal in Bohemia by Gideon Haigh. Published in 2018, the same year as The Portrait of Molly Dean, this non fiction book aims to give an account of the life and times of Mollie Dean.
When I first opened A Scandal in Bohemia I was immediately struck by just how many books Gideon Haigh has to his name. These non fiction titles range from historical true crime, to sports and political stories. Haigh’s range is incredible to say the least, and I feel a little guilty in not coming across his work before. After reading The Portrait of Molly Dean I was hungry for more information on this famous case and tragic figure. This book delivered, but as the focus was on facts and an overview of sources, there were times where it was quite dry.
Where Haigh really finds his groove in A Scandal in Bohemia is the through examination into 1930s Melbourne. Haigh opens our eyes to the Bohemian circle, and name drops plenty of well known figures. It can be a little hard to keep on top of all these notable figures! I did feel like I got to know the world in which Mollie Dean drifted in and out of, as well as the people she interacted with. It also gave me a good picture of Mollie as the aspiring writer she longed to be.
There is plenty of speculation about this case, which Haigh depicts well in A Scandal in Bohemia. Haigh has trawled through so many different records and sources in an attempt to give the reader a solid overview of the case. What amazed me the most but also disappointed me was Mrs Dean, Mollie’s mother, who clearly was guilty about something!
Another area that I found illuminating was Mollie’s legacy in the world of literature. Mollie’s case is loosely depicted in the book and screen version of My Brother Jack. Haigh also directs our interest to other books that focus on the Bohemian art set in Melbourne, who were closely linked to Mollie.
Haigh’s approach to this book is very methodical. A Scandal in Bohemia is structured clearly with seventeen separate chapters, along with an introduction, epilogue, acknowledgements, bibliography and image montage, at the half way point of the book. Haigh devotes the first half of the book to setting the scene for the tragedy that is to occur. He outlines Mollie’s background, family history and life leading up to her murder. Once the murder is discussed at the half way point in the book, plenty of information is hurled at the reader to decipher, in terms of suspects and what actually happened that fateful night. What surprised me the most about Haigh’s investigation into Mollie’s murder was the horrific details of the attack and how Mollie was not killed by her attacker, but left for dead, before she later passed away once authorities arrived on the scene. It is a sad and sorry state of affairs. It also is a complete waste of a life for a young woman who represented aspiration, intelligence and fearlessness.
A tribute to a woman who was in her prime when her life was tragically cut short, A Scandal in Bohemia offers a direct insight into the art world in Melbourne, the key figures that influenced this creative set, and their impact on Mollie Dean. Haigh’s approach to this complex but fascinating historical true crime case is sufficient enough to draw in the watchful eyes of Australian history buffs, art connoisseurs and crime enthusiasts. I’m still perplexed by the case of Mollie Dean…
July 27, 2018
I have to tip my hat to Haigh for taking on an 88-year-old cold case as the subject of this book.
His research is extensive. Unfortunately, the information that is available has very little to do with Mollie Dean's murder and thus this book is very much about everything BUT Mollie Dean. It is about the Melbourne art scene in the 20's and 30's, the "Meldrum" bohemian set, populated with pretentious artists, writers, and musicians, filled with self-importance and the heady permissive times.
Mollie Dean was a young, whip-smart, independent writer and teacher who hailed from the stifling suburbs and was drawn to bohemia like a moth to a flame. She was ambitious and tired of the false propriety of the suburbs, instead, she luxuriated in the intellectual conversations of the Meldrumites, free sex, nude modeling, and hopefully, gaining a patron for her work. She overestimated men's interest in mentoring a young woman, but she was killed before she could find that out.
Her murder was BRUTAL. But we don't even get to the event, until 50% of the way through the book.
The back story of Molly's life takes up the first half of the book. Her father, her weird mother, the Meldrum set, blah blah blah. It really got to the point where I was completely bored. I mean, she had a mother who abused her, stalked her, used her money, a real looney, that could have been riveting stuff. But it just wasn't.
So why? Well, for me, Haigh's writing is as dry as sandpaper. I had read his short article about the case and it was fantastic and led me to buy the book. Unfortunately, his talent seems to be writing as a journalist in short, sharp bursts. The prose required for a book just doesn't seem to flow for him. I kept thinking as I was reading the multiple details of the Meldrum set sex lives, what this book would have been like in Helen Garner's hands and wishing it were so.
This cold case remains cold. Not greater insight into Mollie or her murder. As a 25-year-old woman, no one really was paying much attention to HER until she got slaughtered in an alleyway. Another woman killed and mutilated by some deranged man, in the dark. Haigh is insightful about how hard it is for a woman to live a creative life without a room of her own. Poor Mollie had a psycho mom to contend with and predatory artists for whom she was just collateral damage. She was erased from their consciousness as soon as suspicion on them was lifted. A sad story that remains the modus operandi regarding women's deaths today.
I just wish Haigh was a more human storyteller. As it stands, this book seems like a well researched but boring piece of journalism that adds nothing to Mollie Dean's case, but more importantly, as a piece of writing, fails to surprise.
For me, disappointing.
His research is extensive. Unfortunately, the information that is available has very little to do with Mollie Dean's murder and thus this book is very much about everything BUT Mollie Dean. It is about the Melbourne art scene in the 20's and 30's, the "Meldrum" bohemian set, populated with pretentious artists, writers, and musicians, filled with self-importance and the heady permissive times.
Mollie Dean was a young, whip-smart, independent writer and teacher who hailed from the stifling suburbs and was drawn to bohemia like a moth to a flame. She was ambitious and tired of the false propriety of the suburbs, instead, she luxuriated in the intellectual conversations of the Meldrumites, free sex, nude modeling, and hopefully, gaining a patron for her work. She overestimated men's interest in mentoring a young woman, but she was killed before she could find that out.
Her murder was BRUTAL. But we don't even get to the event, until 50% of the way through the book.
The back story of Molly's life takes up the first half of the book. Her father, her weird mother, the Meldrum set, blah blah blah. It really got to the point where I was completely bored. I mean, she had a mother who abused her, stalked her, used her money, a real looney, that could have been riveting stuff. But it just wasn't.
So why? Well, for me, Haigh's writing is as dry as sandpaper. I had read his short article about the case and it was fantastic and led me to buy the book. Unfortunately, his talent seems to be writing as a journalist in short, sharp bursts. The prose required for a book just doesn't seem to flow for him. I kept thinking as I was reading the multiple details of the Meldrum set sex lives, what this book would have been like in Helen Garner's hands and wishing it were so.
This cold case remains cold. Not greater insight into Mollie or her murder. As a 25-year-old woman, no one really was paying much attention to HER until she got slaughtered in an alleyway. Another woman killed and mutilated by some deranged man, in the dark. Haigh is insightful about how hard it is for a woman to live a creative life without a room of her own. Poor Mollie had a psycho mom to contend with and predatory artists for whom she was just collateral damage. She was erased from their consciousness as soon as suspicion on them was lifted. A sad story that remains the modus operandi regarding women's deaths today.
I just wish Haigh was a more human storyteller. As it stands, this book seems like a well researched but boring piece of journalism that adds nothing to Mollie Dean's case, but more importantly, as a piece of writing, fails to surprise.
For me, disappointing.
April 20, 2018
After reading the article in the media about this book, I was sufficiently intrigued to read more about this murder and in particular, the links with the art world at the time.
Whilst I enjoyed it, it took a while to get to the actual crime- a lot of background information about the early life of Molly Deane and the artistic circles she moved in so it's about halfway through the book before the event happens. The book goes on too long with extra links in literature to the event i.e. a similar event happening in the novel "My Brother Jack" and links between creative people at the time: I felt it was padding out to make a longer work than it needed to be. There is a suitable amount of intrigue regarding the investigations of the crime and "missing" information, the reluctance of people to discuss the event in latter years.
The important message for me from this book was the inequitable nature of women in terms of merit both creatively and artistically and indeed, socially their place. Being an art lover, I found the information about the key players in the saga very interesting- Colin Colahan, Clarice Beckett, Max Meldrum etc. and has made me want to read more about this group of people. I struggled towards the end as I felt the book lost it's momentum but found it equally fascinating that this murder mystery has remained unsolved.
Whilst I enjoyed it, it took a while to get to the actual crime- a lot of background information about the early life of Molly Deane and the artistic circles she moved in so it's about halfway through the book before the event happens. The book goes on too long with extra links in literature to the event i.e. a similar event happening in the novel "My Brother Jack" and links between creative people at the time: I felt it was padding out to make a longer work than it needed to be. There is a suitable amount of intrigue regarding the investigations of the crime and "missing" information, the reluctance of people to discuss the event in latter years.
The important message for me from this book was the inequitable nature of women in terms of merit both creatively and artistically and indeed, socially their place. Being an art lover, I found the information about the key players in the saga very interesting- Colin Colahan, Clarice Beckett, Max Meldrum etc. and has made me want to read more about this group of people. I struggled towards the end as I felt the book lost it's momentum but found it equally fascinating that this murder mystery has remained unsolved.
January 11, 2019
Trigger warnings: murder, rape, death of a child, cheating, abusive/controlling parent.
2.5 stars.
This book sounded absolutely fascinating and I was really hoping to be hooked from start to finish. Unfortunately, this was incredibly dry and I spent most of the time glaring at the criminology call number on the spine, because this is less true crime and more a history of the bohemian arts scene in Melbourne in 1930 and how the murder of one of their own changed the group dynamic.
I felt like maybe two or three chapters of this were actually dealing with the crime and the rest was just about the group of artists and writers that Mollie hung out with. All those artists were talked about as though the reader should know who they were - I didn't - and as though the reader should care about them in some way - I also didn't. I cared about Mollie, but we got so little of her that mostly I was bored. So very very bored. The writing was dry as a piece of bread left outside on a 47 degree day, and seeing as I couldn't give a flying fuck about the arts scene in Melbourne in 1930, this mostly left me flat.
2.5 stars.
This book sounded absolutely fascinating and I was really hoping to be hooked from start to finish. Unfortunately, this was incredibly dry and I spent most of the time glaring at the criminology call number on the spine, because this is less true crime and more a history of the bohemian arts scene in Melbourne in 1930 and how the murder of one of their own changed the group dynamic.
I felt like maybe two or three chapters of this were actually dealing with the crime and the rest was just about the group of artists and writers that Mollie hung out with. All those artists were talked about as though the reader should know who they were - I didn't - and as though the reader should care about them in some way - I also didn't. I cared about Mollie, but we got so little of her that mostly I was bored. So very very bored. The writing was dry as a piece of bread left outside on a 47 degree day, and seeing as I couldn't give a flying fuck about the arts scene in Melbourne in 1930, this mostly left me flat.
August 4, 2018
I'm torn by this book. I love the way Gideon Haigh writes about crime, particularly historical Australian crime. I appreciate that this time his aim was to focus on the victim, rather than the perpetrator, which is astonishingly rare in any crime genre when the victims are women. But I still felt like there was all too much focus on the men in her life Mollie Dean's life, than on her. This could be because of a dearth of information on Mollie Dean, which means one has to rely on the peripheral stories around her, but in the context of this book, it bothered me. I still felt like she was portrayed somewhat negatively, as though her ambition, her sexual liberation and her independence were somehow flaws, rather than in admiration of a woman ahead of her time.
That said, like all of Haigh's books, this is beautifully written and meticulously researched, and I couldn't put it down, despite my discomfort with the characterisation of Mollie Dean.
I wonder how a woman would have written Mollie's story?
That said, like all of Haigh's books, this is beautifully written and meticulously researched, and I couldn't put it down, despite my discomfort with the characterisation of Mollie Dean.
I wonder how a woman would have written Mollie's story?
July 18, 2018
Gideon Haigh must like a challenge if the story of the murder of Mollie Dean is anything to go by. There's not a lot known about Mollie - during her lifetime, or sadly about her violent and vicious death. What little is known is gleaned from small clues left behind, a single photograph, some of her published writing, newspaper reporting and extrapolation of the contradicting societies in which she mixed.
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA starts out concentrating on those societal aspects. Mollie Dean's life initially took the expected path of the daughter of a respected school teacher and a difficult mother, after a good education, she went into teaching, specialising, and succeeding, based on scant records, with special needs classes in particular. There are elements of her early life, however, that give some clues as to why she yearned to veer from that path. Her father died when she was young, and her mother was, by accounts of friends and family, an awful woman. Pushy, demanding and self-involved, her desperation to control Mollie (and her salary), right down, it would seem, to attempts to marry Mollie off to her own young lover, were obviously part of Mollie's longing for "a room of one's own". The echoes here with Virginia Woolf's essay are obviously relied on heavily by Haigh in drawing out a picture of a young woman, a would be writer and poet, who tries many times to remove herself from a toxic family, seeking comfort, acceptance and validation in the artistic and bohemian circle of artists and thinkers surrounding Max Meldrum and Mollie's own lover Colin Colahan.
Attempting to outline the world that Mollie was trying to find a way in, Haigh has done considerable work in identifying the leading figures in the group, outlining their complicated relationships - friendship and sexual - drawing a picture of two very different worlds. A home life blighted by an overbearing mother, who went so far as to have Mollie followed at times (not from care or concern but control), and the free, easy, and literate life of the artistic community. It's very easy to see how a young woman of that time would be drawn to the artistic group, drawn to life as the lover of a talented, albeit somewhat insipid sort of a man. All of that stacks up against the sad and vicious murder of Mollie, and what now seems to have been the disinterested way in which the investigation was treated.
Haigh approaches these books in a manner which reminds you of the lead of an investigation team. Using genealogical sources, public records source, police records and scant snippets of information gleaned from many sources, he pulls together pictures of the time, and the people. Obviously here he's very hamstrung in being able to draw a detailed picture of Mollie Dean and the murder investigation that commenced after her death because so little remains in the records about her and it. There's plenty of conclusions to be drawn from that, and Haigh, as in his last historical true crime book "Certain Admissions", leaves the reader to their own devices in that area. That lack of detail is probably going to be very frustrating for some readers, and for others, overwhelmingly instructive.
From this account it seems that Mollie Dean was a beautiful, clever, talented young woman who was keen to make a mark and achieve something in her life. Her life was taken from her in the most brutal of manners because somebody wanted to control that. Who did that and why, readers will have to decide for themselves.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA starts out concentrating on those societal aspects. Mollie Dean's life initially took the expected path of the daughter of a respected school teacher and a difficult mother, after a good education, she went into teaching, specialising, and succeeding, based on scant records, with special needs classes in particular. There are elements of her early life, however, that give some clues as to why she yearned to veer from that path. Her father died when she was young, and her mother was, by accounts of friends and family, an awful woman. Pushy, demanding and self-involved, her desperation to control Mollie (and her salary), right down, it would seem, to attempts to marry Mollie off to her own young lover, were obviously part of Mollie's longing for "a room of one's own". The echoes here with Virginia Woolf's essay are obviously relied on heavily by Haigh in drawing out a picture of a young woman, a would be writer and poet, who tries many times to remove herself from a toxic family, seeking comfort, acceptance and validation in the artistic and bohemian circle of artists and thinkers surrounding Max Meldrum and Mollie's own lover Colin Colahan.
Attempting to outline the world that Mollie was trying to find a way in, Haigh has done considerable work in identifying the leading figures in the group, outlining their complicated relationships - friendship and sexual - drawing a picture of two very different worlds. A home life blighted by an overbearing mother, who went so far as to have Mollie followed at times (not from care or concern but control), and the free, easy, and literate life of the artistic community. It's very easy to see how a young woman of that time would be drawn to the artistic group, drawn to life as the lover of a talented, albeit somewhat insipid sort of a man. All of that stacks up against the sad and vicious murder of Mollie, and what now seems to have been the disinterested way in which the investigation was treated.
Haigh approaches these books in a manner which reminds you of the lead of an investigation team. Using genealogical sources, public records source, police records and scant snippets of information gleaned from many sources, he pulls together pictures of the time, and the people. Obviously here he's very hamstrung in being able to draw a detailed picture of Mollie Dean and the murder investigation that commenced after her death because so little remains in the records about her and it. There's plenty of conclusions to be drawn from that, and Haigh, as in his last historical true crime book "Certain Admissions", leaves the reader to their own devices in that area. That lack of detail is probably going to be very frustrating for some readers, and for others, overwhelmingly instructive.
From this account it seems that Mollie Dean was a beautiful, clever, talented young woman who was keen to make a mark and achieve something in her life. Her life was taken from her in the most brutal of manners because somebody wanted to control that. Who did that and why, readers will have to decide for themselves.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
May 31, 2018
I usually steer clear of works by journalists, but in keeping with my penchant for 19th-early 20th century true crime, I jumped at this book when I saw it reviewed. It didn't disappoint. Meticulously researched from both primary and secondary sources, A Scandal in Bohemia holds one in its thrall from the Introduction to the Epilogue. Gideon Haigh has excelled in animating facts from dry police briefs and incorporating them with other sources of material. Like a real sleuth, he has sought information from those living who had direct and indirect links to the principals in this story, namely, members of a group who were followers of the artist, Max Meldrum, and known as the "Meldrumites". Mollie Dean, the subject of the scandal who was murdered in Elwood, Melbourne, in 1930 belonged to this group, and brought public attention to their unorthodox habits. Haigh keeps the reader in suspense to the very end as to the identity of the murder- I was waiting for Phrynne Fisher to emerge from the shadows to solve the crime. Not only is this book entertaining but it is beautifully written (for a journalist!) and demonstrates Haigh's dexterous skill with language and expression. I can't wait to explore the lives of the characters in this book who later became part of the Montsalvat artists colony.
May 1, 2018
In 1930 Mary (Mollie) Dean missed the last train from St Kilda to Elwin, in Melbourne and was walking home in the early hours of the morning. She was accosted, bashed, dragged into a lane, sexually assaulted and left for dead. The crime was a sensation at the time but was never solved.
Her lover was a successful and well-known 'Bohemian' and artist but he had an alibi. Could the murderer really be her mother's lover at her mother's instigation? Or was this one in a series of like crimes?
One of the most fascinating aspects of the story is the way it has echoed on in various versions through Australian literature and music. I found Gideon Haigh's book fascinating. He pays attention both to Mollie and to her setting. I was completely drawn in. The one thing I found missing was a real sense of tragedy - probably in an attempt to bypass the usual pathos.
If you are interested in Australian history and the place of women within it, then I recommend this book. It is probably not for true crime aficianados though as there is a lot of other information included.
Her lover was a successful and well-known 'Bohemian' and artist but he had an alibi. Could the murderer really be her mother's lover at her mother's instigation? Or was this one in a series of like crimes?
One of the most fascinating aspects of the story is the way it has echoed on in various versions through Australian literature and music. I found Gideon Haigh's book fascinating. He pays attention both to Mollie and to her setting. I was completely drawn in. The one thing I found missing was a real sense of tragedy - probably in an attempt to bypass the usual pathos.
If you are interested in Australian history and the place of women within it, then I recommend this book. It is probably not for true crime aficianados though as there is a lot of other information included.
December 25, 2022
Interesting case and character and historical story. I really really liked the first two thirds but felt there was too much diversionary detail in the last part.
June 10, 2018
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I expected to. There seems to be a fair amount of filler as there is very little known about the victim mollie dean. Lots of stuff about the art scene in Melbourne which was ok. A bit of supposition and guesswork going on too. Interesting but not fascinating. Sadly it’s quite dry without any emotional attachment. There are incredible aspects to this story in the way she was killed and her seemingly insane mother but these are not explored in any great way. It takes half the book to get to the murder and by that stage I was done.
May 25, 2018
A small amount of story stretched over rather too much book.
April 16, 2019
Boring as batshit.
September 24, 2019
In 1930 a young woman walking home late at night was killed in an laneway in Elwood. The death of Mollie Dean is an unsolved, murder mystery with artistic connections, for Mollie Dean moved in Melbourne’s literary, music and visual arts worlds.
Although the crime has all the elements of a lurid true crime story, the murder of a young woman with a violently possessive mother and salacious artistic companions. Haigh’s book is much more than that, focusing on the life and career of Dean rather than her brutal death.
Haigh is a well known cricket writer and his skill in describing one of the world’s most boring sports lends itself well to explaining Melbourne’s cultural scene in 1920s. Especially when he writes about the self-obsessed group of painters known as the Meldrumites including the founder of the artist colony of Montsalvat Justus Jorgensen. Although Mollie Dean’s lover was the painter, Colin Colahan was never considered a suspect the artists thought the murder was all about them and their reputations.
Haigh doesn’t have any new conclusions or evidence about the crime his research in finding and putting together the details of a young woman’s life is amazing. The difficult search for her few published stories and poems in small Australian publications is heroic.
It is these sidetracks in the story, the background of Melbourne’s history that make for a great true crime story. I was disappointed that there was nothing more on the lead detective Percy Lambell who investigated Melbourne’s first art theft a few years earlier; as there is probably a book yet to be written about him.
Unfortunately there are so many fictional versions of the crime at the end of the book that the true crime is overshadowed. The fictional versions of the murder of Mollie Dean distort the facts with fiction. One of the fact that this type of crime is all too common for women to be killed as they walk home. Although Haigh does look at the difference in opportunities and reputations between the sexes in Melbourne at the time but male violence against women remains unexamined.
Although the crime has all the elements of a lurid true crime story, the murder of a young woman with a violently possessive mother and salacious artistic companions. Haigh’s book is much more than that, focusing on the life and career of Dean rather than her brutal death.
Haigh is a well known cricket writer and his skill in describing one of the world’s most boring sports lends itself well to explaining Melbourne’s cultural scene in 1920s. Especially when he writes about the self-obsessed group of painters known as the Meldrumites including the founder of the artist colony of Montsalvat Justus Jorgensen. Although Mollie Dean’s lover was the painter, Colin Colahan was never considered a suspect the artists thought the murder was all about them and their reputations.
Haigh doesn’t have any new conclusions or evidence about the crime his research in finding and putting together the details of a young woman’s life is amazing. The difficult search for her few published stories and poems in small Australian publications is heroic.
It is these sidetracks in the story, the background of Melbourne’s history that make for a great true crime story. I was disappointed that there was nothing more on the lead detective Percy Lambell who investigated Melbourne’s first art theft a few years earlier; as there is probably a book yet to be written about him.
Unfortunately there are so many fictional versions of the crime at the end of the book that the true crime is overshadowed. The fictional versions of the murder of Mollie Dean distort the facts with fiction. One of the fact that this type of crime is all too common for women to be killed as they walk home. Although Haigh does look at the difference in opportunities and reputations between the sexes in Melbourne at the time but male violence against women remains unexamined.
May 2, 2018
Part whodunnit, part history, part police procedural, part biography, part social commentary, part evocation of Melbourne's arty 1930s, 'A Scandal in Bohemia' (with a nice nod to Sherlock) is a fascinating read. If you enjoy any or all of these genres, do read it.
I thoroughly enjoyed Gidoen Haigh's attention to detail, objective eye, and superior understanding of the status of creative women. Haigh knows well that one does not just need a room of one's own in order to produce art of any kind. The barriers faced by the subject of his investigation, murder victim Mollie Dean, were neither unusual nor particularly severe. They were, however, effective.
This is sensitive, sensible writing, thoroughly researched, and it is particularly clear-eyed about the various fictive treatments derived from Mollie's story (such as in 'My Brother Jack').
Along with Haigh, the reader is left wondering what might have been achieved by this talented young teacher, horribly mutilated and left to die in an Elwood laneway close to her home - uncomfortable and unwelcoming as that home might be.
One of the pitfalls of this kind of book is that there are a number of minor characters whose lives touch the story, and I was pleased to see that for the most part, Haigh kept me informed about who was who. I often find myself searching back a few pages or chapters in biographies to remind myself of what role a certain person has, but I had no need to here. Possiby because I read it quite quickly, not wanting to put it down, so I didn't have time to forget!
And it has pictures and photos. Bonus. :-)
I thoroughly enjoyed Gidoen Haigh's attention to detail, objective eye, and superior understanding of the status of creative women. Haigh knows well that one does not just need a room of one's own in order to produce art of any kind. The barriers faced by the subject of his investigation, murder victim Mollie Dean, were neither unusual nor particularly severe. They were, however, effective.
This is sensitive, sensible writing, thoroughly researched, and it is particularly clear-eyed about the various fictive treatments derived from Mollie's story (such as in 'My Brother Jack').
Along with Haigh, the reader is left wondering what might have been achieved by this talented young teacher, horribly mutilated and left to die in an Elwood laneway close to her home - uncomfortable and unwelcoming as that home might be.
One of the pitfalls of this kind of book is that there are a number of minor characters whose lives touch the story, and I was pleased to see that for the most part, Haigh kept me informed about who was who. I often find myself searching back a few pages or chapters in biographies to remind myself of what role a certain person has, but I had no need to here. Possiby because I read it quite quickly, not wanting to put it down, so I didn't have time to forget!
And it has pictures and photos. Bonus. :-)
February 15, 2019
So promising from the outset, this book floundered beneath the weight of Gideon Haigh's research that nonetheless revealed almost nothing about the type of person Mollie Dean was, only the people around her. The way he wrote about her was faintly remonstrating and had an air of victim blaming to it – I did not enjoy this book one bit.
March 7, 2019
I have been a fan of Gideon's cricket writing for many years, and this work contains all the reasons why. Extremely well written, thoroughly investigated, and intelligently thought through. An entertaining vocabulary and turn of phrase. Kindled an interest to read more of this real crime writing. Gideon gives a woman a place in our cultural history that is more than the "incident."
March 9, 2019
Gideon Haigh’s treatment of Mollie Dean is non-fictional, and there is a long list of sources in the back. It is a very discursive account – rather too discursive – with every possible connection followed up in Haigh’s network of Melbourne bohemianism in the 1930s.
For my complete review, visit
https://residentjudge.com/2019/03/03/...
For my complete review, visit
https://residentjudge.com/2019/03/03/...
October 3, 2018
Very glad I read this on my Kindle. Frequently referenced the dictionary. Too much detail about the art styles of Miss Dean’s bohemian circle. Gideon is a wonderful wordsmith and this contributes to it beta slog.
October 24, 2019
This was a hard book for me to read, I don’t know if it was the writers style or the subject. I found a lot of the story interesting but felt the author went on tangents that I was having trouble following why they related to Mollie Dean.
June 18, 2021
If you can wade through the enormous amount of historical facts, the actual story of Mollie Dean is quite a sad one. I loved the book & felt quite touched by her story & sad to think that Mollie never got to become what she could have.
July 21, 2018
Clearly written and fairly interesting but I found it dragged towards the end. I suspect the author couldn’t find enough material to really bring the story to life.
August 6, 2018
Only the middle 20% of this book is interesting and relevant. The rest is pointless, endless tedium.
September 9, 2018
Disappointing, not as good as the author's previous true crime. Needed a really good edit. More Molly, less Gideon.
January 8, 2023
As a true crime story this sucks a bag of dicks. So much padding. Hated it on every level both true crime and history. And boring as bay shit. Soz Gideon, not your best work.
Read
June 19, 2018From the library, scarily reminiscent of recent events
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