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peggyd 's review for:
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
by Kate Summerscale
I loved Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher and think her writing is crisp and her ability to dive into the world of her subjects is amazing. Yet this time around I just could not find my way in to her main subject: Robert Coombes who, at 13, murdered his mother and let her body rot for nearly two weeks. It's because, despite Summerscale's epic digging, much of the crime and Robert--and his brother Nattie, whom she hints more than once may have been way more involved and even an instigator to the crime--remain elusive. There's never a clear motive, just speculation, and there's no real insight into Robert--maybe his Penny Dreadfuls played a role, maybe not; maybe his mother was so emotionally and physically abusive that he snapped, maybe not. Her forays into the British legal system and especially into Broadmoor Asylum were more compelling for sure.
Her epilogue and Robert's later life were also interesting, but the true subject here, the crime and how this "wicked boy" could have done it, never really come together.
Her epilogue and Robert's later life were also interesting, but the true subject here, the crime and how this "wicked boy" could have done it, never really come together.