The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (NHB Modern Plays)

By Kate Summerscale

Summer 1860, an elegant country house, a young boy is found dead in an outside privy. All clues point towards the murderer being a member of the grieving household.
Called to the scene is the most celebrated detective of his day, Jonathan Whicher from Scotland Yard. But this case challenges him in ways he's never been challenged before.
Over twenty years later, still haunted by the case, Whicher visits the murderer. As they replay the past, they start to question the nature of truth, the desire for certainty, and the possibility of redemption.
This compelling stage adaptation of Kate Summerscale's gripping bestseller opened at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in May 2023.
This ensemble piece provides rich opportunities for companies looking to intrigue their audiences with a fresh take on a dark Victorian mystery.
'A true crime classic turned into a tense drama... ingeniously plotted… Kate Summerscale's Victorian potboiler is deftly condensed in a production that brings out the misogyny and class snobbery of the era' - Guardian
'Taut and magnetic… Alexandra Wood's bold adaptation turns the book's structure on its head… electric' - The Times
'An utterly transporting piece of storytelling that will keep you gripped as it carefully carries you towards its conclusion' - Broadway World
'Powerful… a wonderfully concise retelling and reexamination of the facts… The story unfolds with pleasing clarity' - WhatsOnStage
'Alexandra Wood's dramatisation for the stage intuitively captures the atmosphere of Summerscale's book… keeps the audience on its toes, piecing together fragments of the case and steering toward a remarkable conclusion… exposes the deep-seated, class-ridden misogyny of the Victorian era' - The Stage

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: May 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781788506847

Kate Summerscale

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her debut, The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for The Whitbread Biography Award. The Wicked Boy, published in 2016, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Her latest book, The Haunting of Alma Fielding, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She lives in north London.

Book preview

ACT ONE

Fulham Prison, early 1881. WHICHER is sixty-six, CONSTANCE is thirty-six.

WHICHER. You’ve applied for early release three times.

CONSTANCE. I intend to apply again.

WHICHER. You believe you should be free?

CONSTANCE. I don’t believe I’m a threat.

Reverend Wagner has written on my behalf. Others have, too. They moved me here from Millbank, which was a small concession, I suppose.

WHICHER. You murdered your three-year-old brother.

CONSTANCE. I’ll never forgive myself.

But I believe I could do some good, be of some use to society now.

WHICHER. I moved to Battersea last year but before that I lived just beyond the walls of Millbank Prison.

I thought of you in there.

CONSTANCE. Do you often think about past cases?

Pause.

WHICHER. This case haunts me.

I don’t doubt your guilt, but it’s not the full truth, is it?

I don’t want to die without knowing that.

CONSTANCE. Are you dying?

WHICHER. I’m not in my prime.

Pause.

I’ve spent most of my life pursuing the Truth and it’s often felt like a game. I’ve prided myself on being able to read people, on sparring and outsmarting them, and on knowing, on knowing I’m right, on certainty, on offering people an answer and on the comfort that brings.

Certainty.

But I don’t have that here, and it makes me question whether it’s even possible, or whether I spent my life in pursuit of an illusion, in fact, whether I’ve wasted my time, whether I’ve wasted my time on this earth.

CONSTANCE. I’ve spent sixteen years in prison. My youth. I know about wasted time.

Pause.

WHICHER. I could help you.

CONSTANCE. How?

WHICHER. I could write a letter in support of your early release, like Reverend Wagner.

CONSTANCE. Why would you do that?

WHICHER. If you tell me the full truth of what happened. Just me. Just for my own

Pause.

Do you have many visitors?

Pause.

CONSTANCE. I don’t know what else I can tell you.

WHICHER. If we’re thorough, if we go through it all / with absolute

CONSTANCE. Again?

WHICHER. One last time. If we tread carefully, pay attention to the details, if we are meticulous and uncompromising, / that missing

CONSTANCE. You were all those things before.

WHICHER. that missing piece, that fullness, must be revealed.

CONSTANCE. And what if it isn’t?

WHICHER. I believe it will be.

CONSTANCE. How much is a letter from you worth now, Mr Whicher? It’s a long time since you’ve been considered the prince of detectives.

WHICHER. You’ve had three failed attempts, isn’t it worth a try?

CONSTANCE. I’ve been through it all too many times.

WHICHER. Might not a letter from the detective responsible for your case carry some weight?

You’re right, I don’t have the influence I once had. But without some new advocacy in your next appeal, how much hope can you really have?

A clap of thunder. The sounds of a storm.

The library. MISS PRATT (twenty-eight) rushes onto the stage towards MR KENT (forty-seven), who pulls her down onto his knee and kisses her. She sees CONSTANCE.

MISS PRATT. Not before the child!

MR KENT. It’s only human nature, Mary.

He kisses her again and she responds.

CONSTANCE. Where would you want to begin?

WHICHER. Monday the sixteenth of July, 1860.

CONSTANCE. Saville was already dead by then.

WHICHER. A full two weeks after the murder. But it’s only then that the local constabulary request assistance from the Metropolitan detective force.

Superintendent Foley shows me the drawing room.

FOLEY. The housemaid found the door unlocked and this window slightly open. The shutters are fastened with that bar, no one could have come in from outside, so as horrifying as it is, the murder must’ve been committed by someone in the house.

WHICHER. That’s eleven people?

FOLEY. Yes, but four of those are children, who wouldn’t be capable.

WHICHER. William is fifteen, Constance sixteen. I frequently come across children as young as eight capable

Reviews for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (NHB Modern Plays)

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a dramatically written account of a very high profile murder in a large middle class household in Wiltshire in 1860, which caused a nationwide sensation. A 3 year old boy, Francis Saville Kent, is found missing from his nursery and his body found stuffed down an outside privy, having been stabbed and possibly suffocated. Mr Whicher is one of the inaugural detectives appointed by Scotland Yard back in 1842 and now an experienced detective with a nuanced appreciation of the criminal mind, called in to investigate the crime. He attempts to identify the murderer and, in what is now a fictional detective cliche, antagonises the local police by coming up with different potential solutions. Almost every member of the Kent family and servants is suspected by someone or other of involvement. The main theories coalesce around an accidental death caused by the child catching his father Samuel Kent in bed with one of the servants, and murder of the child due to sibling jealousy on the part of Constance and possibly William Kent, 16 and 15 year old children of Samuel Kent by his first wife. Whicher favours the second explanation, and Constance is summoned before magistrates but there is not enough evidence for her to be committed to trial. The mystery remains unsolved.....until five years later when Constance confesses her guilt. There are still holes in her story and the public and press are reluctant to believe in the guilt of such a young woman, but she is tried and sentenced to death, though this is commuted to 20 years penal servitude after a national outcry. Constance was released after her penal servitude and followed her brother William to Australia where she became a nurse and lived to see her 100th birthday under a false identity - though these facts were only found out by her descendants in the 1970s. This book is much more than just an account of this dramatic crime, it is also a history of crime and society in the mid 19th century and there is a lot of detail of other cases in which the highly esteemed Whicher was involved, and also comparisons with the growing literary genres of sensationalist and detective fiction during the 1850s and 60s, especially with Wilkie Collins, Mary Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Inspector Bucket in Dickens's Bleak House. I thought the book sagged a bit in the middle and become a bit repetitive with the hammering home of some of these theories, but overall this was a fascinating read.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For a book written by someone who has more than one under her belt, you'd think it would be even the slightest bit interesting. But Simon Vance's completely dry voice in the narration of this audiobook had me dragging myself back to it, barely even able to keep my interest afloat. He barely inflected, and his accents were passable, but also hardly different.
While the actual facts of the murder, all the many, many inquests, etc were very interesting, the minutia was not. The storyline kept getting side tracked by completely inconsequential items and news that had nothing at all to do with the story. I'm wondering if it was just padding, to make the book look better.....or if the author was getting paid by the word. Nearly every single chapter was like this, until the last couple. I was not amused.
I wish this book had been SO much better, I can't even......
2.5 stars. Not recommended, unless you have insomnia.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A little Victorian mystery is always good for distraction. I think the subtitle is a bit misleading. The murder was certainly shocking, but the investigation didn't actually "undo" Detective Jack Whicher, who wasn't all that great a detective either, based on the details of his career documented here. To be fair, the whole art/science of detection was very new in the mid-19th century. Apparently he did figure out who dunnit, and nobody believed him until his prime suspect confessed five years later. But he hadn't established any great reputation at the time. The disappearance of three-year old Saville Kent, and the discovery of his stabbed and mutilated body in a privy behind his home in 1860 led to the investigation detailed in [The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher]. The entire Kent household--family and servants-- came under scrutiny, in an age where personal privacy, modesty and discretion were so highly valued that a policeman asking to search for a murder weapon in your home, even under such dire circumstances, was almost unthinkable. God help us, the state of the women's underwear became an issue! (It's really no wonder so many women in the 19th century were seen as suffering from a form of madness...) This is more than a "true crime" story; the lives of all the principals, before and after the event, are set forth in a fair amount of detail, and some of them are quite remarkable. The victim's older half-brother, William (whom Whicher never entirely exonerated in his mind, despite sister Constance's confession and insistence that she alone was responsible) grew up to be a dedicated naturalist, whose book on coral reefs was definitive on the subject for decades. His half-sister Constance lived to be 100 years of age, and was noted for nursing lepers in Australia. This was an interesting companion to [Affinity], the Sarah Waters novel featuring the infamous Millbank prison on the Thames, which I read last year.

[roarer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful book, fascinating on so many levels: the account of the appalling death of the little boy, the mid-19th century household in which it occurred, the tensions within step families, the response of the police, the eccentric contributions of Joe Public and the rabble, how the judicial system operated, also the prison system (and the origin of mosaic pavements), the role of piety, disease, even natural history.

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 starsIn 1860, in a country house in England, a little boy was taken from his bedroom and murdered in the night. It appeared that it must have been someone already inside the house who did it. It was the mid-1800s when detectives were first employed. Mr. Whicher was one of the first detectives at Scotland Yard and was assigned the case at Road Hill House. This book not only looks at that particular case, but also tells us a bit of history of detectives and detecting. The best part of the book is the murder case, itself, for sure. And that is the main focus. Most of the detective history was interesting, but I have to admit that there were parts where my mind wandered a bit, as well. There were a lot of parallels (with the case itself, as well as with random detective history) to contemporary fiction, with detective stories being a new thing at the time. I'm not sure why that was added into the book; some of it I found interesting, but other parts, I could have done without. Overall, though, I did enjoy the book, and I have to admit that I was a bit surprised as to how unwilling a lot of people were at the time to allow detectives to come into their homes to investigate something as “big” as a murder!

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Three-year-old murder victim Saville Kent had a tragically short life, but the investigation of his death had a lasting influence on popular culture and literature. Jonathan “Jack” Whicher, the Scotland Yard investigator called in from London, epitomized the new profession of detective inspector. He was an inspiration for a number of literary characters, including Dickens' Inspector Bucket (Bleak House, Collins' Sergeant Cuff (The Moonstone), and Braddon's Robert Audley (Lady Audley's Secret). Collins wove details from the “Road House murder” into the plot of The Moonstone. Readers with an interest in the history of crime and detective fiction will gain new insight into the early development of this genre.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Four-year-old Saville Kent is murdered in his own home. Although originally placed in the hands of local police, the matter is turned over to Jack Whicher who almost immediately suspects daughter Constance of the crime. However, charges do not stick. Whicher is discredited. The crime is confessed a few years later. The crime is interesting because of its influence on the new detective genre of fiction. Both Wilkie Collins in The Moonstone and Charles Dickens in his unfinished work The Mystery of Edwin Drood used the real case in the village of Road, Wiltshire, now Rode, Somerset, as a starting point in their works. The author informs readers of the future lives of the major characters in the case. While it is interesting, the writing is not flawless. I dislike the "hidden endnotes" employed in this work. Publishers need to quit using them. Give credit where credit is due, and let the reader know credit is being given.

[bruce_mcnair_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the true story of the murder of the four-year old son of a middle-class man in a country house outside the village of Road, Wiltshire in 1860 and its subsequent investigation. Mr Whicher of the title is one of the first detectives in England. Based in London, he is brought onto the case after several days during which the local police and magistrates are totally at a loss. His investigation leads to a member of the household being charged. But the speculation about the case brought on by constant press coverage leads to him being discredited and the charges dropped. The book covers subsequent events that lead to the eventual discovery of the perpetrator. But even then, there are suspicions that the full truth has not been revealed. The amount of investigation by the author to uncover the events and the subsequent lives of the family, other members of the household, and the detectives is truly astounding and worthy of any researcher or detective. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

[darlenecypser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you are only interested in a crime fiction novel or a novelized "true crime" book that claims to have all the answers, go elsewhere. The difference with true crime is that we can't jump inside the heads of the people involved and find out what they are really thinking. In reality life is not black and white and motives are not simple or simple to read. It is really hard to second guess the investigations and the opinions from 160 years ago.

This is an absolutely fabulous book about a murder in the 1860s. It is not fiction, but "true crime" but the author is very familiar with not only crime, but crime and detective fiction of that era, and peppers the book with both. It is very well written. Whether you like true crime or are interested in the history of the detective novel you will find this book fascinating.

[alanteder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fairly recent look at a sensational 1860 murder case which had its own contemporary 1861 account in The Great Crime of 1860; Being a Summary of the Facts Relating to the Murder Committed at Road, a Critical Review of Its Social and Scientific Aspects and a mid-20th century re-examination in 1955's The Tragedy at Road-Hill House.Summerscale uses the facts of the case to also tell the story of the first Scotland Yard detectives and particularly of the titular Mr. Whicher who was one of 8 original detective inspectors from 1842 onwards. The 1860 case wasn't solved at the time and Whicher's proposed solution was not proven, bringing discredit to his career until an 1865 confession seemed to substantiate his earlier theory. Both the 1955 study and Summerscale's 2008 book offer alternative or extended explanations for the crime.Summerscale also provides a good number of references to the detective fiction of the 19th century, some of which took inspiration from Detective Inspector Whicher who had otherwise had an excellent record of crime-solving. Whicher is thus shown to be an inspiration for Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins.This was the Audible Daily Deal on March 5, 2017 for $3.95.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint4.5★'sFrom the Book:The portly, methodical Inspector Singh is a thorn in the side of his bosses on the Singapore police department, so they send him off to Malaysia to monitor the trial of Chelsea Liew, a Singaporean beauty queen accused of killing her abusive millionaire ex-husband. The plot, revolving around the difference between secular and Islamic custody laws, is unexpectedly intricate and surprising. But the keenest pleasures of this book center on Inspector Singh, and his attempts to see justice served while somehow maneuvering around his excessively zealous sergeant, keeping his white sneakers clean, and scoring the occasional tasty snack.My Thoughts:I really liked this book and will plan to read the remainder of the series. The story had everything a good murder mystery novel should have....very well written...many interesting characters... many suspects with good motives to have committed murder, and it brought focus on the destruction of the Borneo rainforest...and don't even get me started on that topic. I couldn't figure out who the killer was and that is always a good thing for me as it encourages me to use the old gray cells. Overall an excellent book and the beginning of a promising series.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Book on CD read by Simon Vance

The introduction of this book begins: This is the story of a murder committed in an English country house in 1860, perhaps the most disturbing murder of its time.

Kate Summerscale recreates the events of one specific night, when a child was taken from his bed and brutally murdered. The local constable was not equipped to truly evaluate the crime. Due to the prominence of the family involved, Scotland Yard sent its best Detective Inspector, Jonathan Whicher, to investigate the murder at Road Hill. Suspicion originally settled on the governess, with an assumption that she was having an affair which the child witnessed. However, Whicher noticed discrepancies in the various witnesses’ stories and, was relentless in questioning family members. His methods were considered intrusive and unorthodox, and eventually he was taken off the case. By the time the truth was revealed a few years later, Whicher had retired.

The crime gained much attention in England (and beyond). Among those who noticed were Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The case marked the beginning of the public’s fascination with murder mysteries, and inspired generations of fictional detectives. I found it fascinating but a bit dry, especially once the murderer has been revealed. I did like that the author followed the various family members into the middle of the 20th century.

Simon Vance is a talented voice artist and he does an admirable job of this book. There are many characters and he is able to sufficiently differentiate the voices to make it easy for the listener to keep them straight.

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kate Summerscale's book "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A shocking murder and the undoing of a great Victorian detective" is an interesting story, but so oddly told.The brutal murder of 3-year-old Francis Saville Kent rocked Victorian England in 1860-- it was clear from the start that someone in the Kent household was responsible. But there were plenty of suspects and rumors that needed to be untangled. The real-life detective Jonathan Wicher is on the case. Very fascinating. The book often reads like a novel.What wasn't so interesting was Summerscale's approach. She seems to want to prove how well-read she is and mentions just about every great Victorian novel and somehow tries to relate it to the case. (No kidding, she mentions Dickens' Bleak House to say the fictional detective was based, not on Mr. Whicher, but someone Mr. Whicher knew.) I started skipping any paragraph with these mentions and I think it shortened the book by about 50 percent. I'm guessing Summerscale was an English major and this was her dissertation because otherwise the format makes little sense.Anyway, the actual story of the murder itself was interesting enough that I raced through to find out who committed the crime.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Couldn't finish this. I borrowed the audiobook version from the library and while Kate Summerscale's writing is smooth and crisp, presented in an excellent narration by Simon Vance, I couldn't get over the distressing fact that the crime was true. Someone really did it; this isn't a nicely entertaining, fabricated mystery story of the kind I usually enjoy. I am also a bit sensitive to violence against children at the moment, as I'm eight months pregnant and getting ready to welcome my own son into this crazy world. So, despite the fascinating period marking the beginning of real-world police detection, I just couldn't finish. I can tell it's well written, though (if a little slow moving), and other readers lacking my hangups may find it quite good.

[charitybradford-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was fascinating, but also really dry. It was as much a commentary on how this murder shaped the world of detective novels as it was on the murder itself. At times I found myself skipping whole paragraphs just to get back to the murder account.

It was also dry because it was written as a step by step, day by day accounting of the investigation. It was not in a story format at all so it was hard to become involved with the characters.

[marti.booker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The writing was pretty blah, but the story itself was sad and interesting, in its own way. If the writer had been less wrapped up in how many pounds, shillings, and pence everything cost and a bit more interested in writing flowing prose, it may have been a better read.

[nandakishore_varma-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would have given this four stars, but I had an issue with the way the book was structured. The author seemed to be not clear about what she was writing-a historical mystery, social commentary about Nineteenth Century England, or an exploration of the evolution of the fictional detective. The narration constantly switched between these modes and grated on the nerves at times.

That said, the mystery is excellent (with genuine clues, red herrings and all): and Inspector Whicher is as enthralling as any fictional detective, especially with regard to the one vital deduction which points to the solution of the mystery.

I wish the author had structured the book differently, first giving us the mystery without any dressings and then analysing its social and literary impact. I feel it would have been more effective.

[shirleybell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Quite interesting but not written in a very engaging way - very dry and matter of fact. Managed to finish it though, but was a bit of a disappointment...

[chris4graham_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well written but a disturbing storyline

[jruel_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Truly fascinating read that reminds us how truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, or at least just as dramatically bleak.

[r0bin_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The title held great promise. The problem was that a truly riveting story was buried under huge drifts of detail and repetition. Still, it was much more thoroughly researched and better written/edited than most true-crime books. So it's all good if you would rather be educated than entertained.

[cat1ballou · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked it all the way until the end. It did feel a bit heavy-handed at times, but you know those Victorians. They did heavy-handed like nobody's business, and I think that tone in the book is a reflection of the primary sources the author used. The only thing I wanted but didn't get was a tidy solution. There was a whole lot of innuendo at the end, but nothing concrete. Boo. Still, though, you could do worse.

[katieanyc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Though its momentum occasionally sags, this is by and large a gripping, clever, true crime Victorian mystery. Summerscale is a master of her material, carefully and elegantly teasing out fact from fiction while remaining steadfastly unafraid of reveling in her own fascination with the case. A slice of bizarre Victorian life, a murder mystery, and a history of the detective in one sly and sophisticated package.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 This is really interesting, and really very difficult to classify. It's not a novel, as the events described are real, however, it is written in the style of detective fiction, with facts being unearthed as you go along. It's also social history, commenting on the state of policing, justice, criminality and prisons of the time. But then again, it runs as an early history of detective fiction itself, showing how many novels of the time set the trend for detectives to come, and how much of that style is based on this case. All in all, it's a fascinating book. The murder is one that shocked the Victorian world by undermining the ideal of family as the murder was committed by one of the family. but who? Mr Whicher had his suspiscions, but they were unproven at the time, and remained suspicions until one of the family confessed. However, even that confession leaves you slightly unsure that this is the entire truth.

[bsquaredinoz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This non-fiction book lays out the story of four year old Francis Saville Kent, son of a prominent Inspector of Factories Samuel Kent, who one morning in 1860 was found to be missing from his bed. His mutilated body was discovered later that day in the grounds of the house and it was established early on that the murderer could only have been someone, family or servant, from within the household. When local police failed to make headway in identifying the culprit Inspector Whicher, a member of England’s first-ever plain clothes detective squad, was sent from London to investigate.

Summerscale has pieced together not only the immediate events surrounding the murder but also the pasts of all the main players including the Kent family and Inspector Whicher. If we need it, the story revealed here provides further evidence that phrases become clichéd because they are true and Mark Twain’s observation that truth is stranger than fiction is borne out. The Road Hill murder seems to have involved more odd characters, false accusations and misinterpreted evidence than ever Conan Doyle or Christie would have dared squeeze into a single story.

It’s obvious that a load of research, mostly from solid primary sources such as court transcripts and Whicher’s detailed reports as well as contemporary newspaper reports, has gone into this book. For me the first chapter, although probably necessary, was the least engaging as it was a bit of a jumble of people’s names and their precise locations at particular points in the timeline immediately before and after the boy’s death. However after this chapter I found the book more to my taste as there was some in depth analysis of the facts that Summerscale had gleaned from all that research.

For me anyway this book was about much more than the attempt to uncover a murderer. There’s a a fascinating description of the development of the investigative techniques (or lack thereof) used in the fledgling field of professional detection. Then there’s the always maddening contemporary explanations for the actions of the women in the case (usually involving insanity brought on by their menstrual cycles of course). While supposedly learned men’s perceptions of my gender’s inferiority is not news to me the insight into the way these kind of events were tried, even then, in the court of public opinion was quite unexpected and totally gripping. I have a feeling that the families involved in modern-day cases such as the death of Azaria Chamberlain (an Australian case from 1980) and the more recent disappearance of Madelaine McCann would feel some empathy for what the Kents and the members of their household went through. And although many things have changed since 1860 (I doubt many modern police enquiries would falter due to an embarrassment about discussing women’s under garments for example) it would appear the willingness of the general public to give freely of their ill-informed guesswork with respect to whodunnit and why is a constant.

I was happily reminded of something reading this book: I really do enjoy this kind of history. I’ve never been that interested in the ‘major events’ (kings, presidents and wars) but this kind of history, based on teasing-out information from a plethora of sources to develop a picture of how ‘average’ people might have responded to their world, does ignite my imagination and I had forgotten just how much. I studied the subject for several years at University and spent my first few working years as an archivist, but over time became a bit bored by it all and deliberately haven’t read a heck of a lot of history in the past 10 years or so. The book is reminiscent of one of my favourite history texts, Natalie Zemon-Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre (a 16th century case of identity theft in France), and I am quite chuffed to have had my interest in this kind of reading re-kindled.

I heartily recommend this book both to crime fiction fans who are interested in the real-world events that influenced some early works in the genre and also to those with a fondness for well written, superbly researched history of the ‘little’ people

[cfraser_38 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The language did not flow and the tone was quite distant - not intimate. Interesting facts covered but disjointed at times

[oddbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Warning: Here be mild spoilers!I had such high hopes for this book because all the reviews said that Summerscale had new information and discovered the true killer in the Victorian Age murder of Saville Kent. Well, that's not true. Not at all.I suspect part of the problem is that as a former true crime aficionado I knew everything Summerscale wrote about in this book. Some of the details from the maids was new, but for the most part there was nothing new in this book for me, down to the lay out of the house to the man who found Saville Kent in the outhouse.Before this book was written, many people felt that Constance potentially took the blame for the murder for an older sibling. Summerscale doesn't even go that far, flogging at the very end of the book, almost as an afterthought, the idea that whether she did it or not, Constance was content to let the blame fall on her as long as it did not fall on her older brother, a man who went on to have a brilliant career.So... It's an absorbing, interesting, well-written book but, if like me, you already knew a lot about Kent before you ever heard of this book, you will likely learn nothing new. It's still a good read in spite of there being little new but it was quite a disappointment when the same old theories were presented as something new.

[mahallett · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

this book certainly wandered around. i didn't know where we were most of the time.interesting on early police work.

[nina4jon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A true life crime which has all the hallmarks of a fictional whodunnit – a Gothic mansion, a plethora of suspects and sudden violent death. A story made all the more tragic by the fact that it really happened. This is a story which has at its core those basest of human emotions – jealously and vengeance – which in this case were taken out against a young child. Its themes are the stuff that drives fiction: money, class, marginalisation, betrayal and fury; yet this is not so much a whodunnit as a how to go about catching them what done it.Some accuse Kate Summerscale of weighing the plot down with detail, but I don't agree because for me it is the detail which makes the book. Even with the sophistication of our science the police can't always solve every murder or violent crime. Mr Wicher had only his brain (and his suspicions) to rely on and yet, although there are some who won't agree with this, I think he probably got his man, although justice may not have been entirely done.I would recommend this book for a number of reasons. It's a fascinating study of Victorian life and middle-class mores in which none of the characters come off particularly well and are exposed for what they were. It's a study in how Victorian detectives had to work. If that's not enough for you, because of the lack of forensic evidence, the book allows the reader to challenge the real-life ending, which is always satisfying. It's also a study in how gender and youth provokes assumption and preconception; and that's because it's basically a study in human nature, as is all violent crime. Not only did we learn of the crime and the probable reasons why it occurred, but the public fury directed against Mr Wicher following his arrest of the prime suspect has certain modern-day parallels if you compare it to some high-profile murder trials of recent years, and in my view for largely the same reasons. Finally – the book should be applauded for allowing us to remember young Saville. Gone but now not forgotten.

[jpporter · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This could almost be considered two books: the first is the story of the Road Hill House murder, which is extremely interesting; the second is an English major's doctoral dissertation on British detective literature in the mid- to late-19th century, which boring.Summerscale's coverage of the murder is exacting - she has provided us with a full, intriguing, story of an evil act that, if her ultimate conclusion is correct, has only been half-resolved. The story of the Kent family is fascinating, and would make for an excellent historical novel in itself, extracted from all the material Summerscale adds. The story of Mr. Whicher (the detective the story is ostensibly about) falls somewhat short of the mark - Summerscale is so intent on giving a literary account of detective work in the 19th century that she seems to lose sight of the person the book is named after. A little more detail about Whicher, and a lot less about Dickens, Collin, Poe, and every other writer of early detection literature would have made for an excellent discussion and biography of an interesting man.However, running through all of the two stories she's trying to interweave is a fixation on detective fiction. Fully a third, if not more, of the book is devoted to explaining what 19th Century detective novelists thought about the business of detective work, the origins of various terms that are part of the detective jargon, the themes that permeate the detective genre, and the ill-informed (and quite possibly, ill-formed) opinions of writers about detectives. This latter take on the book is too much like a doctoral dissertation. Certainly well researched, certainly knowledgeable, but not worth a bit to the story (or stories) Summerscale is supposed to be writing about. Whatever she thought she was doing when she took such great pains to show everyone how many 19th Century detective novels she has spent her life contemplating, all she really does is detract from a pair of stories that could each have had substantial novels or biographies written about them.I had to force myself at times to read this book. I only did so because I found the story of the Kents and Whicher intriguing.