Ruth Ellis, My Sister's Secret Life by Muriel Jakubait with Monica Weller, tells the story of a young woman who was unwittingly caught up in a world of spies, espionage and, of course, murder.
Most people know the story of Ruth Ellis, the peroxide-blonde prostitute who shot her lover, David Blakely, in an 'open-and-shut case' of cold-blooded murder.
The Northumberland Gazette spoke to Monica Weller about the secrets she and Muriel have uncovered in their three-year mission to see that the true story of Ruth Ellis comes to light.
One sliver of that mission led to the pair tracking down Shilbottle woman, Evelyn Galilee.
Evelyn was a prison warder at London's Holloway Prison where Ruth spent the last three weeks before her execution on July 13, 1955. Now, 50 years on, she has spoken out about her experience and the bizarre happenings afterwards.
Evelyn was the warder who guarded Ruth in the Condemned Unit.
At the time she was 28, the same age as Ruth, and she is one of the only people to know exactly what happened in Ruth's cell before she stepped out into the execution chamber.
"She said she prayed she wouldn't be on the roster that day," Monica said. "But she was.
"She never thought Ruth should hang."
While Monica was researching the book at the Public Record Office in Kew she came across Ruth's life story which had been published in the Woman's Sunday Mirror. She had supposedly written it herself in jail. Evelyn said that was impossible.
"She said there was no way that article was written by Ruth."
She said everything Ruth did, and everybody she saw, was written down and recorded. There was no way she had written her life story and there were pieces to the story that didn't fit with Ruth's character.
In the story her son and parents were mentioned, and Evelyn said Ruth would not have wanted to involve her family.
"She wanted privacy for them," she had told Monica.
It was recently discovered the story was written by a reporter, but there was also no possibility of a journalist having spent time with Ruth during her stay in prison either.
Evelyn said there were only officials and her family who went in and out.
"Journalists could not have got in and seemed to be making up their own story for their own game," Monica said.
Another 'fact' challenged by Evelyn's eye-witness account was that on her death certificate it stated Ruth's stomach contents as a small amount of food residue and the odour of brandy.
Evelyn said this statement made her angry.
She was with Ruth in the last 15 minutes before she went to be hanged and although she was offered brandy, she did not touch it.
The only reason Monica could offer for this alleged fabrication was: "I can only think they were trying to make this hanging look more human."
A few days after Ruth's death, Evelyn was called into the prison governor's office and was told she was being transferred immediately to Manchester Prison. She was offered no help with the cost of moving and as a result left the prison service.
"Everybody had to take transfers, but this timing was highly irregular. They obviously wanted her out of the way," Monica said.
This got Evelyn thinking a bit more about the incidents surrounding Ruth's death.
Evelyn sensed, through the time she spent with Ruth, that there was something she was hiding.
"She asked Ruth what she was not telling her. She told her she didn't need to know."
But although the information Evelyn provided raised suspicions that all was not what it seemed, it was really only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the circumstances surrounding David's and, consequentially, Ruth's death.
"After Muriel gave me pointers on their (her's and Ruth's] early lives, I began my own research. About 24 days later I stumbled across Stephen Ward's name."
Ward's was a name that would only become well-known almost a decade later in association with the Profumo scandal, but for Monica it unveiled a whole other life Ruth had been living.
"I realised Ruth had a secret double life. Then everything changed. What started as Muriel's biography became the real story of Ruth.
"She was not the person everyone thought she was. It was just after the war, she was trying to escape poverty, the abuse of her father, and she had a child to support. Along came Stephen Ward and he transferred her into the right circles."
Monica and Muriel believe Ruth and David were drawn into Ward's spy-world, Ruth probably unwittingly.
The book reveals details about the encounters Ruth had with several well-known spies, including Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who defected to Russia.
It also claims the slightly-built Ruth could not have pulled the trigger of the powerful Smith and Wesson once, let alone multiple times, and that she was used as a scapegoat by Desmond Cussen, described at the time as her 'alternative lover'.
Cussen himself proved an intriguing figure, having visited Ruth every day in prison up until her trial, and then testifying for the prosecution, Evelyn told Monica.
"That was irregular. Somebody had done some serious planning."
Monica and Muriel both believe Ruth was made to take the blame for Blakely's killing, with the only punishment for murder being death.
"This came from the top. There's no doubt the Establishment wanted her dead. They cooked up this shooting and killed two birds with one stone."
Monica is passionate about her book and is sure she has got it right.
"We're not convinced. We know. It's all based on first-hand evidence. We've seen so many lies written about Ruth and this is the truth," she said.
"I'm hoping people buy it, read it and if they reach the same conclusions we made, they will stand up and demand the truth."
She said Muriel doesn't think there is any chance the case will return to court, after an appeal on the verdict was turned down in 2003.
"She just wants people to see the real story, not the one that's been spun for 50 years."
Ruth Ellis, My Sister's Secret Life is available at all major bookstores.