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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Or the Murder at Road Hill House

Author: Kate Summerscale
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

15 reviews
Sales Rank: 27

Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3

ISBN: 074759922X
EAN: 9780747599227
ASIN: 074759922X

Publication Date: July 26, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

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•	Hardcover - The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: Or the Murder at Road Hill House

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Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and truly gripping - if not quite perfect August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

"The Suspicions of Mr Whicher" is a fascinating account of a Victorian murder mystery. I was not familiar with the Road Hill House murder case, but it appears to be well-known - which means I had a significant gap in my knowledge of British true crime stories. In 1860, the gruesome and tragic killing of a young boy, Saville Kent, at his countryside home and in the dead of night, gripped the nation, with everyone in Britain, it seems (including, for example, Charles Dickens) having their opinion as to who had committed the brutal murder, and with what motive. The newspapers carried daily reports of developments (or rumours) in the case. Most people were convinced, like the detectives assigned to investigate the boy's death, that the answers lay not in a mysterious intruder with nefarious intent, but with the residents of Road Hill House itself. Kate Summerscale describes how the investigation developed, and fleshes out the central mystery, which if truth be told turns out to be rather slight, with fascinating detail about the 1860s, the Kent family, Mr. Whicher and his fellow detectives, and public reaction to the crime. Some reviewers seem to feel that the level of detail applied by Summerscale here amounts to "padding", but to my mind, it gives the story a real context and a sense of time and place and means the reader is fully immersed in the period as well as in the central mystery. I enjoyed learning about the development of the early detective force, and this discussion feels entirely appropriate in a book about a case that was one of the first to involve such detectives.

Summerscale's narrative style is both highly readable and completely gripping. I read this book in a day, eager to know how (and indeed, whether) the mystery of the young boy's murder would be resolved, and keen to continue enjoying Summerscale's prose. Many true crime - and even historical - books fall far short of the level of research and insight that Kate Summerscale displays here, not to mention the quality of writing, which is first-rate.

One point I must mention is that it is somewhat surprising that in such an obviously meticulously-researched book overflowing with examples of attention to detail, there should be errors. However, I noticed two, without looking for them. Firstly, on page 75 of the paperback edition, Summerscale tells us that the second Mrs Kent had a stillborn baby in 1854, and it was suggested by some that her stepson might be the father, though this was not possible as he had not been in the country at the right time. This explanation worked for the stillborn child "although it suggested nothing about the paternity of her next two children, Saville and Eveline". As the family tree in front of the book shows and the text makes clear, the next two children were Mary Amelia (born 1855) and Saville (born 1856). Eveline was born in 1858. Secondly, on page 92, Summerscale quotes a newspaper report that refers to Constance Kent as William's younger sister. Constance was William's elder sister by a year (Constance born 1844, William born 1845). The mistake is of the 19th-century reporter, not the author, but it is customary when an author quotes an incorrect account to point out any errors (with a "sic", footnote, etc), which is not done here.

A bit disappointing, and perhaps a closer read of the book would turn up further inconsistencies.

In any case, the book gets five stars from me, because rarely has a book in any genre gripped me as this one did. Highly recommended to those interested in true crime and the Victorian era, in particular.

5 out of 5 stars

Enchanting, facinating and a great read August 4, 2008
All the superlatives have been done but I have to say that this book is excellent. It has real life characters straight from Conan Doyle with a plot to match. Wonderfully written.It is also a beautifully produced book. Sit back and enjoy. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars

a tremendous read - full of atmosphere and interest August 1, 2008
I had never heard of the Road Hill House murder, which took place in 1860. Here, with the greatest of skill both in marshalling facts and in presenting them in the most readable manner, Kate Summerscale tells that tale. Savill Kent, aged 3, was taken sleeping from his bed in the formidably well-barred, locked, shuttered and bolted Road Hill House, the home of factory inspector Samuel Kent, carried outside to a servants' privy, murdered and dumped in the privy. The case generated the greatest public interest - the horrible murder of a small boy in his family home, and possibly by one of his own family. Jack Whicher, one of the earliest professional detectives, was brought in and by a combination the study of the very little available evidence and a great deal of intuition, he reached a conclusion and an arrest was made, but no trial ensued and no-one was sentenced .... until five years later when, dramatically, the murderer came forward and confessed. This book opens up the life of middle-class Victorian England, enclosed and guarding its privileges tenaciously, the role of servants, the development of professional detectives, working class men who were entitled by their profession, for example, to rummage through the undergarments of middle-class young ladies, the sensation-seeking popular press and the eagerness of the public to make all sorts of judgements and assumptions on next to no evidence. Everyone in the household was damaged by the case, to a greater or lesser extent. Wilkie Collins and Dickens, as well as a host of lesser names, took an eager interest in it, and parallels are to be found in 'The Moonstone' and 'Bleak House' each of which has its detective. In the end, it is the most surprising and engrossing tale - though a very nasty one - full of unexpected twists. Kate Summerscale did well to review all the copious records and present them to us in such an involving way.

5 out of 5 stars

Bringing the 1860's to life July 21, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book has had almost unilaterally good reviews and I am not going to disagree. The author's skill is to take a rather bland murder in a Somerset country house - there was no sex, drugs or money involved - and recreate it with true verve and fascination as a story for the 21st century, relating it with skill and relevance to the works of Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Poe and other writers who became swept up in the saturation press coverage of the death of little Saville Kent. As other reviewers have intimated, the mystery of the lad's death is well covered in anthologies of 19th Century murder (Kate Summerscale does not pretend to have unearthed a long lost secret and, in fact, she creates very little that's new) but her adroitness in weaving together domestic life in a dysfunctional middle class household with contemporary policing, contemporary literature, the baying of the public and the scorn heaped upon poor Jack Whicher is remarkable.

The book is dense with names and facts which give a sense of being told the whole story but it does not make it a heavy read. There is an engrossing insight into the mores of the 1860's and a poignancy in the telling of the protagonists' lives.The story skips along with nimble twists and turns and it would make a terrific film. I see Sir Michael Gambon as Samuel Kent, by the way, but as no photograph or painted portrait exists of the man we can all conjure up our own idea of how he might have looked.

Put your prejudices to one side if you think this would be a bit of a dull dog: it is a superb story and it is brilliantly told.

4 out of 5 stars

Victorian Murder Investigations, Public Attitudes, and the Birth of Detective Fiction June 21, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you are fascinated by the hypocrisy of the Victorians, you'll love this book. If you want to read a great murder mystery, you should probably search out a work of fiction instead.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher has a wide charter: Tell the story of the murder of three-year-old Saville Kent in his English country home, describe the police investigations, relate the public reaction to the murder and investigations, detail what happened to the characters, help us understand our psychological need to read detective fiction, and provide new insight into the seeds of the crime.

Although the book claims to give us a fiction-like description of the murder and its investigation, Ms. Summerscale's writing isn't quite in the style: She's clearly a non-fiction writer. She's also not very careful of the facts: There's a glaring example in her "A Note on Money" that precedes the Prologue. In the first paragraph she tells us a pound is worth $130 today and in the second paragraph she tells us that a hundred pounds is worth $120,000 today (Yes, she made two mistakes!).

For my taste the book could have been edited down quite a bit. There was about 150 pages worth of material I was interested in within 300 pages of text. She presumes that I want to know more about Victorian authors of detective fiction than I do, and I could have used a much shorter version of what happened next to everyone.

I thought that the two most interesting parts of the book were how modern the analytical methods were that Whicher used (opportunity, motive, and a search for missing clothing) and the commentary on how much we want our detectives to be supermen who always find the criminal (making us feel more secure while allowing us to be moved by the passion behind crime) rather than thinking about the victim.

As for the speculation about the possible seeds of the crime, I thought that the medical parts of that were pretty speculative. The other parts seem more plausible and should have been exposed earlier in the book.