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kimily 's review for:
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
by Kate Summerscale
This book was provided to me as an uncorrected digital copy by the publisher, via Edelweiss.
The Wicked Boy is the true story of Robert Coombes, who, in the summer of 1895, at the age of 13, murdered his mother. He then spent the next several days, along with his brother and a family friend, living in the same house where his mother’s body decomposed in an upstairs bedroom. The book tells the account of the murder, trial, and the ensuing years.
(Some spoilers ahead!) I don’t read many non-fiction books, but the premise of The Wicked Boy immediately caught my attention. I was curious to discover what motivates a very young person to kill their own parent, with no apparent intent to truly get away with the crime. The book kept me reading and interested in the case and life of Robert Coombes, but I struggled to be patient with what I see as “filler”. I know historical context is important (especially when the action takes place during a time period outside of most readers’ life spans), but the talk of political matters almost had me giving up on the book when I was less than a quarter of the way in. Maybe I’m just no seeing the big picture here, but I don’t see how the elections taking place at that time had any impact on the crime or the consequences. Additionally, I wish there had been some way to delve into Robert’s thoughts and motivations. My long history of reading mainly fiction has spoiled me to the omniscient point of view, I guess, so I really can’t hold the lack of gripping emotional drama against the book or the author, one works with the materials one has available. My desire for answers as far as Coombes’ motivation goes was thwarted, but the additional material in the epilogue to the book satisfied my need to see the human side of the man. All-in-all, I feel my time reading this book was time well-spent, and has opened my eyes to the pleasures of non-fiction writing.
The Wicked Boy is the true story of Robert Coombes, who, in the summer of 1895, at the age of 13, murdered his mother. He then spent the next several days, along with his brother and a family friend, living in the same house where his mother’s body decomposed in an upstairs bedroom. The book tells the account of the murder, trial, and the ensuing years.
(Some spoilers ahead!) I don’t read many non-fiction books, but the premise of The Wicked Boy immediately caught my attention. I was curious to discover what motivates a very young person to kill their own parent, with no apparent intent to truly get away with the crime. The book kept me reading and interested in the case and life of Robert Coombes, but I struggled to be patient with what I see as “filler”. I know historical context is important (especially when the action takes place during a time period outside of most readers’ life spans), but the talk of political matters almost had me giving up on the book when I was less than a quarter of the way in. Maybe I’m just no seeing the big picture here, but I don’t see how the elections taking place at that time had any impact on the crime or the consequences. Additionally, I wish there had been some way to delve into Robert’s thoughts and motivations. My long history of reading mainly fiction has spoiled me to the omniscient point of view, I guess, so I really can’t hold the lack of gripping emotional drama against the book or the author, one works with the materials one has available. My desire for answers as far as Coombes’ motivation goes was thwarted, but the additional material in the epilogue to the book satisfied my need to see the human side of the man. All-in-all, I feel my time reading this book was time well-spent, and has opened my eyes to the pleasures of non-fiction writing.