Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

From the Publisher

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 that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller, and in it author Kate Summerscale has fashioned a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.

Publishers Weekly

Simon Vance does a fine job reading this unusually detailed and thoughtful true crime investigation into a notorious child murder case in 1860 London. At the time, there were only eight detectives working in England. Scotland Yard’s top man was Insp. Jonathan Whicher, and he headed the investigation. Intertwined with the tale of detection in its infancy is a fascinating examination of the role played by this case and its inspector in the creation of the detective novel genre by the likes of Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Occasionally, the large number of characters that listeners must sort through can become confusing. HighBridge helpfully provides a printed who’s who inside the CD box. Vance’s perfect diction and agile acting skills are always a pleasure for listeners, and Summerscale’s achievement is a must for anyone who loves detective stories, but this audio requires exceptional concentration. A Walker hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 11, 2007). (Nov.)

Beth Farrell - Library Journal

Summerscale's second work of nonfiction, following The Queen of Whale Cay(1997), is at once a riveting true-crime tale, a fascinating history of the origins of detective fiction, and sharp social commentary on Victorian sensibilities. Audie Award winner Simon Vance's (The Spanish Game) sublime narration transforms listeners into armchair detectives as though they're standing alongside incomparable Scotland Yard detective-inspector Jonathan Whicher as he makes his inquiries. Essential for crime and mystery collections. [Audio clip available through www.highbridgeaudio.com; the Walker hc was recommended "for public and academic libraries," LJ2/1/08.-Ed.]

Library Journal

An English country house, a ghastly child murder, family secrets, a brilliant detective-all the elements of a Victorian crime novel are here in this true account of a celebrated murder in 1860. On June 29, three-year-old Saville Kent was found with his throat slashed in the servant's privy at Road Hill House. An incompetent police investigation proved fruitless, so the magistrate called in London detective James Whicher. Detectives, who investigated crimes across different police districts, were viewed with both awe and suspicion; their investigations often threatened the sacred privacy of the home. Whicher was certain that a member of the family had murdered the child, but a flat denial and the outrage of the community sent him back to London in disgrace. Later developments proved him right, but Whicher's real claim to fame was as the template for fictional detectives, particularly Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone . Summerscale organizes the book like a period novel, with a denouement that suggests that full justice was never done. Erik Larson (The Devil in the White City ) fans will be enthralled. For public and academic libraries.-Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L.

Kirkus Reviews

Painstaking but never boring recreation of a sensational 1860 murder brings to shivering life the age of the Victorian detective. The Road Hill case served as fodder for the emerging detective genre taken up with relish by such authors as Dickens, Poe and Wilkie Collins. It perplexed detectives at the time and was resolved five years after the deed-and then only partially and unsatisfactorily, avers British journalist and biographer Summerscale (The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of ‘Joe' Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water, 1997, etc.). She models this engaging true-crime tale on the traditional country-house murder mystery, packed with secretive family members moving about with hidden motives in a commodious old manor house. On June 30, 1860, in the Wiltshire village of Road, three-year-old Saville Kent was removed in the dead of night from his cot in the room he shared with his nursemaid, suffocated, stabbed and dumped in the privy outside the kitchen. In addition to his parents, Samuel and Mary Kent, the inhabitants of Road Hill House included numerous servants and Samuel's four children from his previous marriage, each harboring various grievances since their mother's untimely death. After the local constable made a mess of the investigation, authorities called in Scotland Yard's "prince of detectives," Jonathan Whicher, then at the height of his career at age 45. The author dispassionately presents highlights from the record of Whicher's interviews with servants and family members, allowing readers to fill in the blanks much as the detective had to do. On largely circumstantial evidence, he arrested Samuel's 16-year-old daughter Constance, but she was soon released, and thepress ridiculed Whicher for accusing an innocent girl. In 1865, however, she confessed to the crime and after a sensational trial served a 20-year prison sentence. Summerscale pursues the story over decades, enriching the account with explanations of the then-new detective terminology and methods and suggesting a convincing motive for Constance's out-of-the-blue confession. A bang-up sleuthing adventure.

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