The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company; Reprint edition (February 17, 2009)
ISBN-10: 080271742X
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Summerscale (The Queen of Whale Cay) delivers a mesmerizing portrait of one of England’s first detectives and the gruesome murder investigation that nearly destroyed him. In 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was found murdered in the outdoor privy of his family’s country estate. Local police scrambled for clues, but to no avail. Scotland Yard Det.-Insp. Jonathan Jack Whicher was called in and immediately suspected the unthinkable: someone in the Kent family killed Saville. Theories abounded as everyone from the nursemaid to Saville’s father became a suspect. Whicher tirelessly pursued every lead and became convinced that Constance Kent, Saville’s teenage half-sister, was the murderer, but with little evidence and no confession, the case went cold and Whicher returned to London, a broken man. Five years later, the killer came forward with a shocking account of the crime, leading to a sensational trial. Whicher is a fascinating hero, and readers will delight in following every lurid twist and turn in his investigation.
I really thought I would enjoy this book more than I did. I’m guessing I’m into gothic mysteries but not so much into “detectives”(with the exception of Sherlock Holmes)..I enjoy things more like the 13th Tale and Drood.
The case was sad, being it was the murder of a small child. Mr. Whicher was called in after the police did all their “investigation” and later it was felt that the police didn’t try very hard to help Whicher when he investigated the crime. Add to that he was given a very short amount of time to try to solve the murder.
It was different knowing that this was about a real detective and that the murder was also real.. and it was a little strange to see references at times from Charles Dickens.. and yes, even Wilke Collins is mentioned! (it would seem I cannot rid myself of these two writers and their books!!)
Though I wouldn’t call this book a favorite, that’s not to say this didn’t have it’s interesting parts, it did! At times I felt myself really getting into the story and then I’d float out again.. not sure why that was.
This book wasn’t a page turner for me..but as I said, it did have some interesting things about it. I guess I’d say it was a good book.. just not one that when it was over I knew I’d want to read again sometime.
I’ve been awfully slow with reviews lately and haven’t mentioned any “new” ones… so I thought I’d catch you up on that…
What you see here is actually pretty good for me! Only two of them are new books from Amazon (Shadow Dragons by James A Owen and Syren by Angie Sage), one ( Magic & Malice: Mairelon the Magician/ Magicians Ward by Patricia C. Wrede) is a used book from Amazon, and the other 4 are from thrift shops at which I paid not over 1.00 for each of them!
The bad part is that I can’t blame anyone for any of these!!! I’ve been reading James A Owen’s series from the beginning and the same with Angie Sage so they were “have to” buys… the rest were steals I couldn’t resist, knowing I’d get to them sooner or later.. with my tbr pile so huge I am sure it will be Later!
