For the second time, celebrated crime-fiction writer Howard Engel turns his hand to nonfiction. Setting out in the nineteenth century, Engel travels from France and England to Canada and the United States, with engaging detours along the way. As he discovers, le crime passionel, a concept originating in France, has a special place in many legal codes around the world. Engel explores more than twenty-five classic, infamous and still unresolved cases.