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ejmiddleton 's review for:
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
by Kate Summerscale
I'm glad I stumbled upon this - like the previous two books I read, it was awarded a 2017 Edgar Award, this one for Best Fact Crime Fiction. It was amazing how little of the author's own opinions were used to describe the events that happened without it feeling like a police report, and absolutely astounding how much detail was unearthed by the extensive research she completed.
I hate to call someone's life interesting insofar as it feels like entertainment, and this man's life was too harrowing to be reduced to a couple of anecdotes to tell at a party. But the experiences he had in London, with his parents, during WWI, and in Australia are the reasons novels should be written. I have no idea what made Kate Summerscale grab onto this story and write it, but I'm glad she did.
I hate to call someone's life interesting insofar as it feels like entertainment, and this man's life was too harrowing to be reduced to a couple of anecdotes to tell at a party. But the experiences he had in London, with his parents, during WWI, and in Australia are the reasons novels should be written. I have no idea what made Kate Summerscale grab onto this story and write it, but I'm glad she did.