Itemize Appertaining To Books The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
| Title | : | The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective |
| Author | : | Kate Summerscale |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 360 pages |
| Published | : | April 27th 2020 by Walker & Company |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Crime. True Crime. Mystery. Historical. Victorian |
Narrative In Pursuance Of Books The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
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.
Describe Books During The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
| Original Title: | The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective |
| ISBN: | 0802715354 (ISBN13: 9780802715357) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Constance Emilie Kent, Francis Savile Kent, Detective Jonathan Whicher |
| Setting: | Rode, Somerset, England,1860(United Kingdom) |
| Literary Awards: | Macavity Award Nominee for Best Nonfiction/Critical (2009), Anthony Award Nominee for Best Critical Nonfiction (2009), Agatha Award Nominee for Best Nonfiction (2008), Galaxy British Book Awards for Book of the Year (2009), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime (2009) Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (2008) |
Rating Appertaining To Books The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
Ratings: 3.45 From 18085 Users | 1983 ReviewsEvaluate Appertaining To Books The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
Do you enjoy Victorian literature? Fascinated by true crime? Then you could find a lot to enjoy in The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which deals with a murder that rocked Victorian England the death of the three year old darling of a middle class family, stolen from his crib in a locked house and found dumped in a privy with his throat cut.Calling upon the Government to send one of its newly created detectives to solve the case (and receiving the titular Mr Whicher, one of their best), at first theI expected a detective story set in the Victorian era and instead I got this great and extremely accurate historical novel that percolate into current times. I enjoyed reading about Mr. Whicher and I suffered with him when the public opinion dragged him down. But what I enjoyed the most is being taken through the genesis of something we take for granted nowadays: the police force. The tale is surprisingly modern: the media jumped on the story from the start, complaint about the detective work
SuspicionThis is a version of the true murder investigation, which occurred in Road Hill House on 30th June 1860 in Rode in Wiltshire. The death of 3-year-old Francis Savill Kent became a national outrage and a widespread public condemnation towards the middle-class lifestyles and values. What went on behind closed doors? What can money and social class cover-up?What was fact, was that behind locked doors the murder occurred and the murderer was one of the household staff or family. Mr Jonathan
So disappointing! I was hoping for another "Devil in the White City" but, what I got was "Devil in the over researched, meandering, dull city." Poor Mr. Whicher. From the beginning we are promised a story about this interesting man and the case that brought him down. This was a man who influenced all the famous literary detectives from Sherlock Holmes to Philip Marlowe. But, we never got to know him. He never had a voice. And frankly, the guy on the page would have a hard time influencing
This book really went beyond what I was expecting from it. Aside from re-telling the mystery of a 3 year old's murder, the author also delved into the life and thoughts of one of the first and greatest dectectives, Mr. Whicher. Since I had never heard of this detective or this murder before, it was shocking to realize how many famous books were so greatly influenced by the story. For instance, Dickens was highly interested in this case, and Lady Audley's Secret was quite heavily based upon the
So it wasn't totally bad, but it never lived up to its hype either. The whoddunit part of the story was quite suspenceful, and even before that, the setup where you're introduced to this odd Victorian family, and you know something bad is about to happen (I was picturing a Rosemary's baby scenario leading up to a macare... ) - that part was good. So here's the deal: the research was thorough, the writing - scientific, unimaginative and drowned in endless details. Not to mention the characters,
It's a bit hard to understand all the acclaim "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" has received. A recounting of the murder of a three-year-old English boy in 1860 as well as an exploration of the killing's impact on detective work both real and fictional, the book certainly isn't terrible but does suffer from being something of a data dump for the author.It seems Kate Summerscale felt a need to give us every niggling detail she was able to dig up about the murder, its coverage by the press at the
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