On a November night in 1848, a cloaked assassin strode into a mansion in rural Norfolk and shot dead two of its inhabitants, a judge called Isaac Jermy, and his son, over an inheritance dispute.

The accused was a farmer, James Blomfield Rush, a man with the self-preserving instincts of a cornered animal, already strongly suspected of the murders of his own mother and stepfather. Arrested with him was his lover, Emily Sandford, who had been his children's governess and was about to give birth to his illegitimate child. Both were enmeshed in a dark web of forgery and deception. The trial at Norwich in which Rush defended himself became a sensation, spawning acres of newspaper coverage and even souvenirs of the crime.

After years of research, Glenn Chandler, the creator of television's Taggart, reveals for the first time the full story of this extraordinary crime and its aftermath. The execution and Rush's death on the gallows at Norwich Castle, to which thousands came, did not end the story or bring closure. Murder sends out ripples and affects its descendants for years to come. Three families in all were destroyed by the case. The curse of Rush travelled across the world with his eldest son to New Zealand. Rush's lover Emily, who became for a while the most notorious woman in England, escaped to a new life with a new name, accompanied by her brother, but tragedy followed them both. Emily's only child by Rush had a brand put on her by her monstrous father and died young, soon after finding happiness in her own marriage. Bloodlands is an almost unbelievable tale of conspiracy, human frailty and obsession.