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katykelly's review
4.0
I found this fascinating! I love social history, and the murder (whilst horrifying and grisly) is only a small part of this book. The fact that every aspect of the family, their lives, their house, was investigated, meant that the depth of detail is so incredible for Kate Summerscale to dig into.
The murder of a 3 year old boy in the 1860s sends a London detective to the house to investigate just who killed him and how. It’s a true story and all details taken from the actual police files and statements. Knowing it was a member of the household adds to the drama, and also knowing it took so many months and even years for all the facts to be known makes this more dramatic and suspenseful than any modern TV crime drama!
At times, the detail went a little far (a lot of quotes from Dickens, and The Woman in White) but I found it a well-written account of the case and a very vivid picture of Victorian family and police life.
If you like your crime bloody and fast-moving this isn’t one for you. If you like historical detail, intricacies and slower-moving but intense stories, give this a go.
The murder of a 3 year old boy in the 1860s sends a London detective to the house to investigate just who killed him and how. It’s a true story and all details taken from the actual police files and statements. Knowing it was a member of the household adds to the drama, and also knowing it took so many months and even years for all the facts to be known makes this more dramatic and suspenseful than any modern TV crime drama!
At times, the detail went a little far (a lot of quotes from Dickens, and The Woman in White) but I found it a well-written account of the case and a very vivid picture of Victorian family and police life.
If you like your crime bloody and fast-moving this isn’t one for you. If you like historical detail, intricacies and slower-moving but intense stories, give this a go.
gilliske's review against another edition
5.0
Wat een intrigerend en spannend boek!
Dit is zonder twijfel het meest spannende non-fictie verhaal dat ik tot nu toe gelezen heb.
Zoveel research moet hierin gekropen zijn! Zoveel uren, dagen, maanden gespendeerd aan het doorpluizen van oude krantenartikels, archieven, documenten, ... En met een heel mooi resultaat.
Akkoord: het is een dankbaar onderwerp. Zoals zo vaak gezegd wordt blijkt de werkelijkheid hier verrassender, angstaanjagender, griezeliger en onwaarschijnlijker dan de fantasie.
De moord zelf, het mysterie rond de moord, de heisa rond de speurtocht naar de moordenaar, de intrigerende en geheimzinnige personages, ... Alle elementen voor een spannend detective verhaal waren aanwezig.
Maar hoewel dit boek in essentie misschien 'maar' een omschrijving is van wat er zoveel jaar geleden in en rond een specifiek gezin is gebeurd, is het zeker niet zo evident om dit op een zo vlot leesbare, boeiende maar ook historisch correcte manier neer te schrijven.
Ik heb nog niet zo veel van dit type boeken gelezen, dus kan niet vergelijken en dus ook niet inschatten hoe uitzonderlijk dit boek als resultaat is.
Maar de essentie is dat ik enorm heb genoten van dit boek. Dat ik het verslonden heb, niet kon neerleggen, en bijna spijt heb dat het uit is.
Dit is zonder twijfel het meest spannende non-fictie verhaal dat ik tot nu toe gelezen heb.
Zoveel research moet hierin gekropen zijn! Zoveel uren, dagen, maanden gespendeerd aan het doorpluizen van oude krantenartikels, archieven, documenten, ... En met een heel mooi resultaat.
Akkoord: het is een dankbaar onderwerp. Zoals zo vaak gezegd wordt blijkt de werkelijkheid hier verrassender, angstaanjagender, griezeliger en onwaarschijnlijker dan de fantasie.
De moord zelf, het mysterie rond de moord, de heisa rond de speurtocht naar de moordenaar, de intrigerende en geheimzinnige personages, ... Alle elementen voor een spannend detective verhaal waren aanwezig.
Maar hoewel dit boek in essentie misschien 'maar' een omschrijving is van wat er zoveel jaar geleden in en rond een specifiek gezin is gebeurd, is het zeker niet zo evident om dit op een zo vlot leesbare, boeiende maar ook historisch correcte manier neer te schrijven.
Ik heb nog niet zo veel van dit type boeken gelezen, dus kan niet vergelijken en dus ook niet inschatten hoe uitzonderlijk dit boek als resultaat is.
Maar de essentie is dat ik enorm heb genoten van dit boek. Dat ik het verslonden heb, niet kon neerleggen, en bijna spijt heb dat het uit is.
bookwoman1967's review against another edition
2.0
Those Victorians were weird. They could have used a shrink. Most of the book is about their psychological reaction to murders and detectives, and how this is reflected in literature of the time. The part about the actual murder and its investigation and the follow-up is interesting, the other not so much. The author's theory of the actual solution to the murder is only presented in the epilogue! I think if the author had left the psychobabble and literary analysis to the minimum she would have had a much better, although significantly shorter, book.
erintowner's review
Many reviewers on Goodreads feel that Kate Summerscale includes too many arbitrary details; I don't share that feeling. Don't be scared off by reviews painting this as a dry book. I found it enjoyable and if you like true crime and history you will too.
book_concierge's review
3.0
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.
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.
kitdunsmore's review
3.0
Kate Summerscale tells the story of a murder in 1860 that might easily have inspired one of Agatha Christie's country manor murder mysteries. In fact, Summerscale's presentation is designed to invoke just such a comparison, and the author herself points out the many connections between this real-life mystery and contemporary literature written by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe, and others.
Mr. Whicher, the detective of the title, was one of the first detectives ever, part of the eight-man department opened at Scotland Yard in 1842. By the time of the murder in 1860, Whicher has a well-earned reputation for getting his man.
The first section of the book, which is written like a classic English whodunit, covers the day leading up to and including the murder itself. A three-year-old boy disappears in the middle of the night and his body is found with his throat cut. A murder apparently without motive leads to suspicions about everyone in the household from the lowly nursemaid to the tyrannical father. Two weeks of stumbling around bring the local police no closer to the answer and in desperation they call in Scotland yard.
The book begins to stray from the classical fictional mystery format when we are introduced to Detective Jonathan Whicher. We follow him as he looks far and wide for information regarding the case. He is certain before long that he knows who killed the boy and when the arrest is made, the villagers go wild. The only thing more shocking to the Victorians than the violent death of a child is the thought that an adolescent might be responsible.
Due to bad handling of both the witnesses and the leads during the inquest, the case is not brought to trial and Whicher returns to London in defeat. He goes on with his life, and the investigations around the Road Hill murder go on without him. Public views sway with the wind, and solutions to the mystery are sent to Scotland Yard by citizens from all over the country. As in any good mystery where there is insufficient evidence to nail the culprit, the murderer is caught only because she confesses.
While Whicher is vindicated, the evidence still doesn't quite add up. Summerscale points out the oddities, which were glossed over at the time, and, using documents that were discovered in the last century, proposes her own solution with credibility.
I was less enthusiastic about this book by the time I reached the end. The familiar structure of the beginning had me thinking in terms of fiction instead of reality. Real life is full of dead and loose ends, and even with the author's theories to wrap up what she can, the book ends with questions unanswered, questions that will never be answered. And the title is overly dramatic. The story is far from shocking to a modern reader; our media inundate us with far too many horrors for this one to be of any surprise.
All in all, it's a good book. It gives a taste of English life in the mid-1800s that includes the tension between the classes and vivid details of daily life. The exploration of public opinion and its effects on the case show that in many ways people haven't changed. In 1860, everyone had a theory who killed Saville Kent and facts didn't enter into it. The majority of the solutions were designed to make the unpopular responsible for the death. For anyone familiar with the works referred to, there is the added interest of seeing how the first mystery novels were shaped by the times in general and this case and this detective in particular.
Mr. Whicher, the detective of the title, was one of the first detectives ever, part of the eight-man department opened at Scotland Yard in 1842. By the time of the murder in 1860, Whicher has a well-earned reputation for getting his man.
The first section of the book, which is written like a classic English whodunit, covers the day leading up to and including the murder itself. A three-year-old boy disappears in the middle of the night and his body is found with his throat cut. A murder apparently without motive leads to suspicions about everyone in the household from the lowly nursemaid to the tyrannical father. Two weeks of stumbling around bring the local police no closer to the answer and in desperation they call in Scotland yard.
The book begins to stray from the classical fictional mystery format when we are introduced to Detective Jonathan Whicher. We follow him as he looks far and wide for information regarding the case. He is certain before long that he knows who killed the boy and when the arrest is made, the villagers go wild. The only thing more shocking to the Victorians than the violent death of a child is the thought that an adolescent might be responsible.
Due to bad handling of both the witnesses and the leads during the inquest, the case is not brought to trial and Whicher returns to London in defeat. He goes on with his life, and the investigations around the Road Hill murder go on without him. Public views sway with the wind, and solutions to the mystery are sent to Scotland Yard by citizens from all over the country. As in any good mystery where there is insufficient evidence to nail the culprit, the murderer is caught only because she confesses.
While Whicher is vindicated, the evidence still doesn't quite add up. Summerscale points out the oddities, which were glossed over at the time, and, using documents that were discovered in the last century, proposes her own solution with credibility.
I was less enthusiastic about this book by the time I reached the end. The familiar structure of the beginning had me thinking in terms of fiction instead of reality. Real life is full of dead and loose ends, and even with the author's theories to wrap up what she can, the book ends with questions unanswered, questions that will never be answered. And the title is overly dramatic. The story is far from shocking to a modern reader; our media inundate us with far too many horrors for this one to be of any surprise.
All in all, it's a good book. It gives a taste of English life in the mid-1800s that includes the tension between the classes and vivid details of daily life. The exploration of public opinion and its effects on the case show that in many ways people haven't changed. In 1860, everyone had a theory who killed Saville Kent and facts didn't enter into it. The majority of the solutions were designed to make the unpopular responsible for the death. For anyone familiar with the works referred to, there is the added interest of seeing how the first mystery novels were shaped by the times in general and this case and this detective in particular.
fyre_flies's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent