Blood Runs Green

“O’Brien does a wonderful job of placing the sensational 1889 murder of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin firmly within the history of nineteenth century Irish Chicago, as well as within the political machinations of the city, the Clan na Gael, Ireland, and the Catholic Church. Blood Runs Green is a lively tale of intrigue, murder, and the Gilded Age in the fastest growing city of nineteenth century America.”–Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Chicago: A Biography“Blood Runs Green is the first book in more than a century to examine Cronin’s execution-style killing and the trial of five men on charges of conspiracy to murder. Gillian O’Brien’s retelling of this pivotal yet almost forgotten story is worth the wait… . With a thoroughness and insight worthy of an academic Sherlock Holmes, O’Brien has mined newspaper accounts, court records and archives in Ireland, Britain and the US to breathe life into the people and events connected to the case.”– “Irish Times”“O’Brien paints a vivid picture of what was then the longest-running trial in US history with a verve that would make John Grisham and company green with envy… . Blood Runs Green is all that’s best in academic writing: detailed research, accessible writing–and a rattling good yarn. It certainly kept me turning the pages like the best crime novel.”– “Times Higher Education”“O’Brien’s detailed account is a testament to what good, well-written history can be: interesting, spell-binding, instructive, and thought-provoking all at once. Blood Runs Green is a tale well and skillfully told.”– “Look at Books”“Page-turning… . In retelling a tale that for years captured the attention of Chicagoans as well as international readers, O’Brien has shared a slice of history that had long-lasting and far-reaching implications. Thoroughly researched and well told, Blood Runs Green is a timeless story that deftly captures the feel of an era.”– “Chicago Book Review”

“Chicago’s reputation for dramatic crime and corruption predates Al Capone and Prohibition–by decades. In May 1889 Dr. P. H. Cronin, an esteemed physician, was found in a sewer. He was naked, dead, and savagely beaten. The investigation and trial caused an international sensation, and one of the world’s first media circuses, over a story that involved Irish revolutionaries and reactionaries, secret societies, and even a French spy… . All at a time when Chicago had been burned down, and was reborn as the fast-growing city in America.”

Gillian O’Brien a Reader in Modern Irish History at Liverpool John Moores University. She is coeditor of Georgian Dublin and Portraits of the City: Dublin and the Wider World.