Uncovering the Mystery of Mr. Whicher: A Gripping Tale of a Victorian Detective and a Shocking Murder

Chipolata: Great book.

United Kingdom on Feb 01, 2024

C. Simmons: This one was well researched, but a little dry. The author chased some rabbits of research that didn’t really contribute to the story at all. It is interesting to note how detectives were once reviled as spies. I guess police have always been under suspicion by the general public.

United States on Jan 19, 2024

Kindle Customer: The murder of young Saville Kent was one of the most infamous crimes of the mid-Victorian era. This book provides an excellent account of the murder, Saville's family, and the aftermath and eventual resolution of the mystery of his death.

United States on Dec 28, 2023

Argyll Sock: "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" is a thoroughly engrossing examination of the Road Hill House murder in 1860.

Class and gender distinctions bedeviled the case to such a degree that the primary suspect was deemed innocent because of those considerations. Only when the murderer eventually confessed to the crime was the murder eventually explained.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in history, crime and the Victorian sensibility.

Canada on Dec 04, 2022

ベーる: This is a story based on a true family tragety of the 19th century England, well
documented and very well written.I was not able to put it down until I read it
through, a rare phnomenon at my age of 70 plus something.

If you are a littel tired of those fast-paced contemporary mysteries, try this
book. You will experience a slow and quiet reading time of your own.

Japan on Jul 14, 2012

Barry J. Callahan: My review is based on the Audio CD version: "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" has a lot going for it. The mystery at the center of the story is enthralling. This book is definitely a "whodunit?" A child is murdered in cold blood, with family members, servants, and strangers all suspected. There are so many possible suspects that I really had to pay close attention in the first third of the story to keep track of each character. The author introduceS the murder story line very near the beginning of the book and soon after follows it with the detective story line. She does a very good job of running both parallel one to another. (Think similarly to Dan Brown's "The da Vinci Code," which had a parallel structure also.) The author keeps the reader moving along, jumping back and forth between the Kent family and the Detective Mr. Whicher, and the plot eventually focuses on the interaction of these characters.

At times, both story lines get bogged down in too much detail. This is true about the infancy of dective work in Britain, how it developed, how the public became fascinated and then obsessed with detective work, etc. However, the author does a wonder job of vividly describing...

United States on Feb 15, 2010

brudervomweber: Kate Summerscales Buch über einen wahren Mordfall aus dem Jahr 1860 und dessen Auswirkungen auf die damalige englische Gesellschaft ist vieles: eine Dokumentation, eine spannende Rekonstruktion eines Mordfalls und insbesondere eine kenntnisreiche und kreative Studie über die Faszination am Verbrechen und die gesellschaftliche Funktion des Detektivs in der Viktorianischen Epoche.

Der Stil des Buches ist beizeiten dröge, die Sprache durch viele Zitate aus Büchern, Presseberichten und polizeilichen Akten mitunter gestelzt, weil eben alt, aber gerade dieser Tonfall macht den Reiz aus, den das Buch hat. Summerscale jongliert mit den Fakten, sie reibt Theorien über den brutalen Mord an dem dreijährigen Francis Saville Kent, die öffentliche und sensationslüsterne Berichtserstattung und das Echo, welches der Fall insbesondere in der damals knospenden Detektiv-Literatur fand, experimentierfreudig aneinander und kreiert dadurch ein lärmendes, überzeugendes Panorama jener rastlosen Wochen und Monate, in denen Heerscharen von wohlmeinenden, aber allzu unfähigen Ermittlern, Nachbarn und Freunden durch das Haus der Kents in Road liefen und die schreckliche, die Volksseele...

Germany on Jul 09, 2009

Phil-Don: L'époque victorienne. Une grande demeure où réside une famille des plus respectables. Un crime aussi mystérieux qu'abominable. Et l'inspecteur / détective qui mène l'enquête. On se croirait dans une histoire de Sherlock Holmes. Et pourtant, non, celle-ci est bien réelle - et richement documentée par un auteur soucieux de vérifier le moindre détail.
Le livre est passionnant du début à la fin. L'auteur a su rendre l'atmosphère énigmatique entourant l'enquête, en montrer la progression étape par étape et capter les fluctuations de l'opinion publique. Et, sortant du décor du crime, l'évocation de la société victorienne est elle aussi très réussie.

France on Apr 05, 2009

John D. Cofield: In England in the early 1860s the detective, as profession and as fictional hero, was just coming into vogue. A series of sensational cases in the 1850s had captured the imagination of the British public, which, more literate than ever before, was enthralled by reports carried in an ever-increasing number of newspapers and magazines. Stories of fictional crime-solving heroics were provided by writers like Willkie Collins, further whetting the public appetite. Then, in the summer of 1860, a shocking murder took place. In a country house occupied by a wealthy family and its servants, a child was taken from its bed and brutally killed. Jonathan Whicher, one of the finest detectives of the day, was dispatched to solve the case. Mr. Whicher quickly narrowed his suspects down to one, and a huge furor broke out. Whicher was accused of jumping the gun, of publicity-seeking, and of an unseemly arrogance. His suspect was arrested, questioned, then released, and Whicher's career came to an end in disgrace shortly thereafter. Five years later, Whicher's suspect made a suprise confession, vindicating the detective after all.

Kate Summerscale has done a marvelous job of recapturing the...

United States on May 16, 2008