A review by catherine_the_greatest
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale

3.0

The epilogue contains an explanation of how the author came across the story of Robert Coombes, who at age 13 was found "guilty but insane" for the murder of his mother. She researched the case and the rest of his life as best she could, but not a lot of information existed. She was able to track down where he ended up after leaving the asylum at age 30, moving to Australia, serving in the AIF during WWI and being a productive member of society. The main body of the book contains a lot of her historical research about the area where Robert lived, the other events of that summer, the lawyers and others involved in the case, the asylum and other places Robert lived, etc. Most of the information was interesting, but a little dry and not always completely relevant to the main narrative. I wish the book would have been shorter and more focused.