[In the following review, the author gives a synopsis of Wakefield's Hearken to the Evidence.]

Lady Tarnhorn's husband was a troublesome invalid and her senior by many years; moreover—although presumably a faithful wife—she was known to have inspired other men with infatuation. In spite of these circumstances no suspicion at first attached to her when her husband died of arsenic poisoning, because one of the infatuated young men confessed to murder, swore that she had known nothing of his plan and then committed suicide. With that, no doubt, the tragedy would have ended had it not been for the evidence of an under-gardener named Alcock. This man—apparently a dull-witted but honest country oaf—himself approached the police and volunteered the statement that, on the day of her husband's death, he had seen Lady Tarnhorn in a tool shed pouring weed killer from a tin into some small receptacle, such as a powder box. On the strength of Alcock's evidence, which remained unshaken throughout a fierce cross-examination, Lady Tarnhorn in the course of time was sentenced to death. There was, however, another explanation both of the manner of her husband's death and also of Alcock's story. Thanks to the unswering faith and energy of her legal advisers these truths came to light in time to save the unfortunate woman's life. The construction of [Hearken to the Evidence] which includes the speeches for the prosecution and defence and the Judge's summing up, helps to make the story an interesting study in circumstantial evidence.