The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective | 
| Author: Kate Summerscale
Publisher: Walker & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 2421
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0802715354
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523094231
EAN: 9780802715357
ASIN: 0802715354
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Dust jacket and pages in perfect condition.
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Product Description
The dramatic story of the real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land. At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking, as Kate Summerscale relates in her scintillating new book, that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher. Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable—that someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love today…from the cryptic Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller, and in it Kate Summerscale has fashioned a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 The Dark Side Brought to Light August 18, 2008
This is a fascinating story on so many levels: a study of a family's dark secrets, brought to light by a determined detective; the unraveling of clues leading to the solving of a grisly murder; a study of Victorian society, mores, and family life; and a fascinating character study not only of the family involved in the murder, but also of the detective who doggedly sought to solve the crime. This book is well-researched, yet seldom becomes bogged down in too much detail (and, well, detail is essential when one is attempting to solve a crime, after all). Detective Whicher, working at the dawn of his profession, is one of the most successful and best-known of the time. Thus he is sent to solve the murder of a small child when the only viable suspects are those who were in the house at the time -- the family and its servants. He treads therefore on shaky ground and his suspicions make him extremely unpopular with the family and the public. This is a story as much about his the damage done to his reputation, and the pain it causes him, as it is about the crime he seeks to solve. The fact that he had to use what clues (even the word "clue" was new!) he could, in an age before DNA testing, fingerprints, and other more sophisticated means of criminal analysis were available, makes his story all the more mesmerizing. Detectives often had to use their gut instincts, but instincts alone couldn't solve crimes, even if they were correct. The juxtaposition of the unhappy family, seeking to keep its problems secret, the detective who is forced to unearth those secrets to solve the crime, and the society at large which is dealing with a new age not only in the family, but in science and religion, makes for a fascinating story. I recommend it highly, especially for anyone interested in mystery, crime-solving, and the Victorian Age.
Chilling, Tragic Victorian Mystery August 18, 2008
Kate Summerscale brings the hither-to untold story of a gruesome murder that brought the gothic sentiments of the Victorian era to a climax and redefined its views of crime, detection and tragedy. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher unravels the fascinating tales of the crime itself and the effect it had on society as for the first time, an upper-class family suffered an unspeakable crime that could only have been committed from within.
A factual book for fiction lovers too August 15, 2008
Murder mystery books are not my cup of tea. This book though is full of fascinating facts from the author's extensive research into a shocking murder in the western countryside of Queen Victoria's England in 1860. It captures the early days of the big city detective and how they think when compared with village policemen. It draws the reader into understanding the intense psychological pain of the victims' family. Can a factual book be a "real page turner"? Yes, this is one example. My wife loves reading murder mystery stories but will she enjoy this? I think so, so I am planning to give her a chance to read it before recycling it on half.com.
 Bloated August 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Summerscale has interesting material, but sinks her work by throwing in much, too much superfluous detail and digression (Melville you're not). The book would have been very good if chopped by 50% or so, had she had a competent editor or seen to this herself. More importantly, it would have dramatically improved the clarity of presentation. Yes, by God, we get it, Constance is "stout" (in quotes over and over again). Also, you see, the public is fascinated by this new phenomenon, the detective (Summerscale provides numerous contemporary novel quotes, which are at best dimly illuminating and, taken in aggregate, annoyingly irrelevant). In addition, the brother William, whose role in the killing is poorly substantiated, is not so interesting a character, at least with regard to the case, to justify the volume of prose and photos.
The author tries to argue what a uniquely Victorian situation this was, when in fact deadly sibling rivalry is older than Cain and Abel. I will give her credit for delineating the creepy, calm, blank stillness of Constance. Also, the addition of a photograph (and these are quite well done) of a St. Paul's mosaic, which may or may not have been created by Constance, is indeed chilling.
 Good, but at times a bit slow. August 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Comparing it to a book I recently read, this one is somewhat less interesting. There are many good bits of interesting information about the society at the time. The case itself, however, seems less interesting.
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