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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher | 
 enlarge | Author: Kate Summerscale
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £6.83
You Save: £5.16 (43%)
New (14) Used (2) from £6.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 102
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 074759922X
EAN: 9780747599227
ASIN: 074759922X
Publication Date: July 26, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 I couldn't put it down... January 5, 2009
I just finished this book last night and I have to say it is one of those books that you mourn finishing - What will I read now? I love social history but am not so much a historian that I can read straight-up history books although I keep trying. What I loved so much about this book is that the author clearly did painstaking research, not only around the story itself but in researching the social history of that time as it connected to the story being told. It brought Victorian England to life for me and all the characters in the story also. Add to that the extra flavour of describing the challenges posed to a fledgling role of a detective. I am a huge fan of CSI and was intrigued at the initial stumblings of the science of detection as described in this book. Would absolutely recommend this book.
murder as social and cultural history January 1, 2009
This excellent, readable book explores a number of fascinating strands of mid-Victorian social and cultural history through the story of a real-life child murder. In 1860 a four year old boy, Saville Kent, disappears from his nursery at his father's country house in Road, Wiltshire (now Rode, Somerset) and after a search is found murdered in an outside privy. It didn't need Sherlock Holmes or Fabian of the Yard to work out that the killer was a member of the household. And, as Kate Summerscale so ably demonstrates, Mr Kent's household was not the conventional Victorian happy home and there were any number of emotional and psychological undercurrents. The local police having proved themselves spectacularly incompetant, a detective was sent for from London to try and clear up the case. This was Jonathan Whicher, a member of the newly formed Detective Office at Scotland Yard. Using a strikingly modern approach (looking at means, motive and opportunity plus material evidence) he makes a case and arrests a suspect but provides insufficient evidence to enable the case to proceed to trial. And there the matter seems to end; Whicher leaves the force (with what sounds like depression). But in a striking denouement, 5 years later an individual comes forward with a confession, and a subsequent guilty plea at trial...
Kate Summerscale has re-examined this famous case in detail and used the tragedy as a launchpad to explore many fascinating byways of mid-Victorian life, from daily life to the development of the police service. In addition, the media interest was (inevitably) frenzied and as Kate Summerscale demonstrates, interest triggered the first forays of English writers into detective and crime fiction. Initially represented by Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and The Moonstone, the genre continued through the Victorian period culminating with the fantasy figure of Sherlock Holmes, the detective as reasoning machine.
Kate Summerscale rounds off by considering theories of what really did happen that night in Road in 1860. The confession satisfied the legal process, but questions still remain. A theory is discussed that seems to answer these questions but of course we will never know for certain. Which makes the tragic mystery both of continuing interest and worthy of the retelling.
The style flows really smoothly and I read the book over a couple of days. The period detail is excellent and well-explained and many of the descriptions (especially about William Kent's scientific work) are vivid and strong. William's pet fern owls sound particularly delightful.
If you are at all interested in Victorian social history, the development of policing in this country, the origins of detective fiction or historical murder mysteries with details tantalisingly unexplained, read and enjoy this book.
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher December 31, 2008
Simply, this is a superb book. It is a great detective story (and it is - quite literally - the original detective story) ; it is also a great historical novel; but more than anything it is a great read.
When I picked this book up I simply couldnt put it down and finished it 12 hours or so later. I was entangled in the mystery, I first doubted and then believed in Mr Whicher, and then doubted him again when he failed. The resolution to the story hit me like a classic sucker punch, and then, right at the end another twist that stuck like a punch in the guts.
I cant recomend this book enough. It works as a whodunnit, but its much more. The author charts the history of the detective and provides somehing of a social history in general while telling the story.
Intriguing and informative December 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good combination of whodunit and history of the period (1860).
The author includes maps, room plans and photographs which ensure that the reader can't forget the reality of the murder. Yet at the beginning of the book there is a family tree and a 'List of Characters' which almost suggests it's a work of detective fiction, popular at the time.
I found it really fascinating, from the gruesome murder of a young child to the personal and professional lives of Scotland Yard detectives. Summerscale has researched her material and the facts of the case very well and the result is a book that satisfies lovers of both facts and fiction.
One of the best non-fiction titles of the year December 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this after listening to parts of it on BBCR4. In another writer's hand this could have been one of those dreary `true crime' books, but the author broadens out the story to investigate the society of the time, and draw parallels with our own, not least the impact the case has on the public and press of the time, which is all too familiar today.
This is one of those books that could have quite easily disappeared without trace, published with a whimper rather than a bang, but thankly it hasn't and had received the plaudits and awards that it richly deserves.
A very good and original book.
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