E. M. Rose's first book, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe, published by Oxford University Press in 2015[4] was reviewed[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] as a landmark[13] in the study of the history of the Blood libel, as the first detailed, academic investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 1144 unsolved murder of William of Norwich, the first historical incident to which the Blood libel can be traced.
The Murder of William of Norwich was recognized as a "Top Ten Book in History" by The Sunday Times (London)[8] and received the 2016 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of the Phi Beta Kappa Society for "a scholarly study that contributes significantly to interpretation of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.[14]"