The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

Sadly,i found this book to be very episodic and padded out to the enth degree.There was never an opportunity to engage with the characters or to feel any kind of emotion for their tragedy.Rather like the detective in the story i was left feeling rather duped though a little more clued up on English policing in Victorian times.

What a huge disappointment this was. From the reviews and 'blurb' I'd imagined I'd be reading a thriller. Not a bit of it, this is a piece of history as painstakingly put together as it is mind numbingly dull to read. As a historical text book, this is fine, as a bedtime story, it is guaranteed to put you to sleep, as a holiday read it is a no no.

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.

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.

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.