Police learned that the physical description of one assailant matched Rosenblum's, but he was already en route to Britain. His accomplice Voitek later told British intelligence officers about this incident and other dealings with Rosenblum. Several months prior to this murder, Rosenblum had met Ethel Lilian Boole, a young Englishwoman who was a budding writer and active in Russian émigré circles. The couple developed a rapport and began a sexual liaison, and he told her about his past in Russia. After the affair concluded, they continued to correspond. In 1897, Boole published "The Gadfly", a critically acclaimed novel whose central character was allegedly based on Reilly's life as Rosenblum. In the novel, the protagonist is a bastard who feigns his suicide to escape his illegitimate past, and then voyages to South America. He later returns to Europe and becomes involved with Italian anarchists and other revolutionaries.