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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I really loved this book! As a big fan of true crime and history this book was the perfect combination.
I felt like the author did a great job just telling the story and not getting lost in explanations and trivial details. There was not a lot of conjecture. While this might maker the book slow for some people, I didn't have a hard time with it and actually found it quite easy to read.
Thanks to Penguin for an advanced copy on exchange for an honest review.
I felt like the author did a great job just telling the story and not getting lost in explanations and trivial details. There was not a lot of conjecture. While this might maker the book slow for some people, I didn't have a hard time with it and actually found it quite easy to read.
Thanks to Penguin for an advanced copy on exchange for an honest review.
Interesting story but I wasn't caught by the storytelling.
Starts in the Victorian era, when a boy of 13, Robert Coombes and his 12 year old brother Nattie have 10 days of freedom until the smell from their house causes someone to investigate only to find that their mother is dead, their father is off at sea and they have recruited a family friend to help take care of them.
When the mother's body is examined they discover that she has been stabbed and Robert admits that he's the one who did it. The trial ends with him in Broadmoor, convicted. After many years he's declared sane and discharged and he goes to Australia. Then he enlists and becomes a stretcher bearer and musician for the Australian Army and lives into old age, showing compassion to a young boy who is beaten by his father, becoming a read father to him.
It's an interesting story of redemption and complicated life that made me think, though the writing style somehow left me cold.
Starts in the Victorian era, when a boy of 13, Robert Coombes and his 12 year old brother Nattie have 10 days of freedom until the smell from their house causes someone to investigate only to find that their mother is dead, their father is off at sea and they have recruited a family friend to help take care of them.
When the mother's body is examined they discover that she has been stabbed and Robert admits that he's the one who did it. The trial ends with him in Broadmoor, convicted. After many years he's declared sane and discharged and he goes to Australia. Then he enlists and becomes a stretcher bearer and musician for the Australian Army and lives into old age, showing compassion to a young boy who is beaten by his father, becoming a read father to him.
It's an interesting story of redemption and complicated life that made me think, though the writing style somehow left me cold.
Oh, this was a fascinating read. Summerscale provides a wonderful lens into the world of Victorian London, its court system, and its treatment of a teenage boy deemed insane. The story seems straightforward, but took surprising twists and turns that kept me unable to put the book down - and the end left me perfectly satisfied.
Like Summerscale's other works, this is absolutely brilliant, combining depths of research and humanity to create a book that is nearly impossible to put down.
This isn't so much a crime mystery, since the trial was all rather cut and dried. It is more of a psychological investigation into Robert Coombes, and so book doesn't end with the verdict, but rather follows him through his sentence, rehabilitation and the rest of his life. The fact that he didn't become a violent adult speaks well for the treatment he received at Broadmoor. Not all Victorian psychiatric care was brutal.
Kate Summerscale’s books are always impressive in how much research and level of detail she can find about these old cases. I like them because there’s so much context about the period in addition to the main narrative. The information makes reading Victorian fiction more fun.
However, this one seemed a little thin because there was no mystery. You know from the beginning who committed the crime. There’s a little overlap with some of the “penny dreadful made me do it” theme of “Murder by the Book,” which I also read lately.
My mind did wander a little in some sections, but I’m glad I stuck with it until the end. The epilogue puts a whole different spin on the story.
However, this one seemed a little thin because there was no mystery. You know from the beginning who committed the crime. There’s a little overlap with some of the “penny dreadful made me do it” theme of “Murder by the Book,” which I also read lately.
My mind did wander a little in some sections, but I’m glad I stuck with it until the end. The epilogue puts a whole different spin on the story.