The episode where Daniel Spofford "disappears" (presumed murdered according to press reports), and the subsequent jailing of Gilbert Eddy and Edward Arens (pp. 50-52) has always seems so absurd as to be almost impossible. Peel's comments on p. 51 set the scene for a realistic view of the proceedings:
What sounds a century later like a black joke burst on the Christian Scientists like the end of the world. Over the years, biographers have tended to shrug off the episode as an inexplicable product of seething emotions in the Lynn teapot, but it deserves a closer and more careful look than that.
The press had pronounced Gilbert Eddy guilty at the outset and words like "notorious", "murder", and "conspiracy" flowed through their pages. What lies were constructed and assumptions made. And what a mystery to be solved. Excellent detective work, an admission of fault, and vigorous leg work and attention to detail overturned the case, but left unanswered the original perpetrator. Peel continues the detective work on pp. 57-58 as he thinks aloud with the reader in his analysis of the events and possible motivations. Perhaps more recent biographers have shed new light on the case.
Peel comments on the enduring misunderstanding about Mrs Eddy's life. Note #68 on page 329 is astute: Peel refers to the "lack of seriousness" allocated to her, even by "the more benevolent of [her] fellow Christians".
Julie Swannell
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