A brutal, seemingly motiveless murder and the attempts of an exceptional detective to solve the crime are the crux of Kate Summerscale's compelling book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. In the early hours of June 29th, 1860, four year old Saville Kent is horribly slain and stuffed down the hole of the outdoor lavatory. Although the family is not liked among the close community, the suspicion falls on the members of the household, including the maids, governesses and the Kents themselves. When the case becomes unsolvable for the local magistrates, Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher is dispatched to solve the crime that has so puzzled and horrified the town. What follows are the attempts of a genius detective to solve an unlikely crime. Through missing evidence, hazy claims of madness and adultery, and a public appetite for all the gory details of the murder, Jack Whicher becomes embroiled in the case that ultimately costs him his reputation and public regard.

Whicher is the ultimate detective. Able to accurately pinpoint suspects using scant information and relying heavily on his own hunches, he rises through the ranks of law enforcement rapidly, eventually leading the first group of detectives in history. He is the model upon which the first fictional detectives are based, and his prowess and skill are fully highlighted in this book. Throughout the story, Whicher isn't afraid to pose unpopular speculations, and though the public denounces his hypothesis, he steadfastly works to bring the killer to justice. I found him to be a remarkable man whose abilities were far beyond the time in which he lived, far beyond what we even now expect a detective to be.

One of the most intriguing things about this book was the public involvement and mania regarding this case. From the adulation of the detective prototype by the likes of Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe, to the involvement of the public in their mass attendance of the trial, the community's hunger for this case was arresting in it's detail. Many of the townspeople wrote letters speculating who the killer might be; one man even falsely confessed to the crime. It was very ironic that the public at that time was so negatively disposed to the idea of surveillance and detection. The idea that people could be spied upon and that their private homes and their proclivities could be brought into the open was extremely uncomfortable for them to imagine. Many looked upon the detective and his colleagues as unsavory operatives waiting to invade the sanctity of their private lives and abodes. It seemed as though they were eager to find out the secrets of the Kent family while shunning the detection that brought these facts to light. It must have been a fine line to walk for Detective Whicher, whose successes only compounded the community's distrust.

The book was meticulously researched and heavily laden with facts. Not only was I privy to the social customs of the time, but also to other murder investigations, detective literature of the time, and facts about the principal characters' private lives. The book was at once enveloping and confidential, while still being surprising and unconventional. The suspense of the story was meted out in an atypical way, and although it ended in a conundrum that couldn't be solved, it was still very satisfying. The one quibble I had with the book was the tremendous quantity of facts throughout. At times it was a little overwhelming. Later chapters seemed to be balanced better and I began to see that the story may have sacrificed some of its urgency by displacing its factual density. The inclusion of photographs and maps was also an illuminating and welcome touch.

This book was a very rich and intricate look at a crime that may not be familiar to many, but whose implications and originality have forever shaped the way crimes are handled today. An interesting approach to the crime novel and an enlightening picture of times past.

I really liked how this book explained that many of the fictional detectives were based on the detectives in this case. Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, and many other writers used the detectives in this case as models for their fictional detectives.

I read mostly fiction, so a non-fiction book was a slight deviation. I enjoyed the references to the books of the time.

It was so interesting to find out how the lives of the family, servants, and detictives turned out after the case was resolved. The confession by one person relieved others from suspicion and blame by the public.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is the true story of a murder that took place at Road Hill House in the English countryside. One night, at the end of June, 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was found dead in the privy of his family's estate, his neck severed. A week later, Detective Jack Whicher, of Scotland Yard, arrived on the scene, and promptly determined that Saville's half sister Constance, age 16, committed the horrible crime. What followed was a ghastly revealing of one family's secrets in an era when the family and its home was considered to be sacrosanct.

Summerscale writes as though all this is fiction, and walks us right through the crime, from the time the Kents went to bed on that June evening up through a dramatic trial five years later and beyond. There were a number of brutal murders that took place around the time that London began to have its own specialized detective force, and these detectives were the inspiration for many fictional detectives, Inspector Bucket of Bleak House and Sergeant Cuff of The Moonstone, to name just two. Murders such as these were inspiration for much of the sensationalist fiction that was written in the 1850s and `60s; Ellen Wood and Mary Elizabeth Braddon were just two of the many authors who wrote this kind of "lowbrow" literature.

These murders were especially shocking to mid-Victorian values; as Summerscale points out many times in the course of her narrative, the home was sacred, and any invasion of that privacy was frowned upon far more than it would be today. What was remarkable about the Kents was the fact that their house did not resemble those of other Victorians, with the family living on the lower floors and the servants above. Rather, the servants slept near to the family, with the children of Samuel Kent's first marriage living on the third floor. The fact that Mary Ann, Elizabeth, William, and Constance Kent were treated as inferiors played a large part in the murder investigation, as did a missing nightgown that might have been bloodstained.

The Road Hill House murder shares an eerie resemblance to Jane Eyre, which incidentally had been published the year before: both situations involved mad wives and governesses. Summerscale paints her hard-boiled detective Whicher as determined to get to the truth, no matter the cost to his reputation, and the Kent family one with many secrets to hide. Constance, the accused, is portrayed in a sympathetic light, as is Elizabeth Gough, the governess. In all, this was an absolutely superb book--it reads almost like The Woman In White which, incidentally, was running in installments at this time. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a must read for lovers of the Victorian period.

A good "whodunnit" that will keep you turning the pages, even more so because it is a true story. A horrible crime has been committed, everyone in the house is a suspect - the detective examines the evidence, actions and motives of the suspects. Everyone is potentially a murderer, and some have more suspicions cast upon them than others. The story shocked and intrigued Victorian England at the time, not only because of it's innocent victim, but that it took place in an upper middle class English home.

The author interweaves detective fiction, popular at the time, into the story to help provide a backdrop to the characters and events to tell the story. I liked the way she would intersperse little bits of detective fiction to help move the direction the story was taking along, but sometimes it went on too long. Other that that, the writing is crisp and to the point.
In the end, there are still lingering questions, which made the ending a teeny bit unsatisfying, but I believe the author researched all she could to answer those questions, (it was evident her research was extensive and through) and in a way, forever keeps the story mysterious.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries, especially true crime stories. And also to those who generally like to read non-fiction, especially those who enjoy reading about Victorian England.

A shocking murder occurred at Road in 1860. A little boy, Francis Saville Kent, was whisked from his bed in the middle of the night, and only found the next day with his throat cut, shoved down a privy and wrapped in a blanket from his bed. At the same time, a fever for investigation and detection has swept the country and every man and woman is intent on solving the crime, blaming everyone from Saville's father to the nursemaid to the neighbors. When the local police fail to turn up anything, Jonathan Whicher is called in, a detective from London. His conclusions shock Victorian sensibilities, however, and he falls from grace, though the book continues to unravel the mystery in his absence.

In addition to solving the crime and proposing some final solutions to the mysteries involved, Summerscale also provides us with a very interesting cultural and social study of the mid to late nineteenth century. In detail, she describes the detective fervor, early crime cases, their influence on literature, and how the great Whicher himself inspired such literary figures as Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone. This is easily the most interesting part of the book. The mystery feels solved one third of the way in, although the public isn't convinced and it isn't fully unravelled yet, but the interesting effect it has on the English view of detectives is certainly the best part of the book and worth reading just for that. In addition, Summerscale puts forth the new view of the middle-class home as a place of privacy and demonstrates how this case tore it wide open, making us realize just why Whicher's conclusions were so objectionable. The effect of newspapers on all of this is striking and detailed.

The narrative flows along smoothly for the most part and doesn't get boring or drag. There are some parts that don't fit, in particular details of William's biological work are simply dull and don't reflect any of the book's greater qualities, but they are few and mostly towards the conclusion of the book. The conclusion itself gets very interesting as Summerscale enters into her most interesting speculations about the true nature of the crime and the Kent family, so it is most certainly worth going through.

In the end, this was a really interesting read. Very informative and entertaining. I'm glad I read it and I'd recommend it to someone else, particularly someone interested in Victorian literature or history.

I read about this book in a literary newspaper and had high hopes for a good Victorian era whodunnit. I was pretty disappointed. The author delivers far too many pointless details probably to get this sad story to book length. I never felt sure about whether the crime was actually solved or just resolved. It's really a sad tale about the murder of a small child, the hunt for his killer, and the tole the investigation takes on his family. Mr. Whicher is from Scotland Yard and until this investigation, had a great reputation for solving crimes. Turns out he may have been right in his suspicions all along. Nobody really wins in this book.

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.

I really enjoyed this book. If you love detective stories, true crime, or historical works this might be a book for you. Also I think if you enjoyed "Devil in the White City" you would probably appreciate this story as well.
A grisly and fascinating little crime story as well as tons of information about detectives and detective work. I found myself often saying "Wow. I did not know that!"
I really liked it.

Summerscales's detailed accounting of the murder and disposition of a small child by a member of an "up and coming family" in Victorian England is hard to beat if you like grotesque crime details and intricately recounted distasteful, tabloid-like blended-family relations. The "Mr. Whicher" of the title was a brilliant detective whose correct solution to the murder was not vindicated for many years, ironically through a confession by the actual murderer. However, given the ostensible facts, the author vastly overstates the case by including "the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective" in her title. That Mr. Whicher was extremely frustrated and upset by failure to bring the guilty party to book at the time and later through a trial is undeniable. But this reader did not find that he was "undone," if by that is meant public ostracization and similar forms of opprobrium. However, this book is hard to put down. In the end, the least interesting fact may be the identity of the actual killer. This murder mystery proved to be an enduring headline grabber in the English press for many years.

In England in the early 1860s the detective, as profession and as fictional hero, was just coming into vogue. A series of sensational cases in the 1850s had captured the imagination of the British public, which, more literate than ever before, was enthralled by reports carried in an ever-increasing number of newspapers and magazines. Stories of fictional crime-solving heroics were provided by writers like Willkie Collins, further whetting the public appetite. Then, in the summer of 1860, a shocking murder took place. In a country house occupied by a wealthy family and its servants, a child was taken from its bed and brutally killed. Jonathan Whicher, one of the finest detectives of the day, was dispatched to solve the case. Mr. Whicher quickly narrowed his suspects down to one, and a huge furor broke out. Whicher was accused of jumping the gun, of publicity-seeking, and of an unseemly arrogance. His suspect was arrested, questioned, then released, and Whicher's career came to an end in disgrace shortly thereafter. Five years later, Whicher's suspect made a suprise confession, vindicating the detective after all.

Kate Summerscale has done a marvelous job of recapturing the world in which these events took place, especially in identifying elements of this true crime which influenced the writers of detective and mystery fiction over the next many years, so that the theme of a crime which takes place in an isolated location with a limited number of potential suspects remains a staple of the genre to this day. She traces the protagonists' lives far and wide and into some surprising places. Most interestingly, she points out the many inconsistencies in the final confession and indicates that there was probably much more to the story than was ever publicly told.

Mystery and true crime story fans will enjoy this book, as will historians, sociologists, and anyone who likes a good, solid conundrum.

If you had asked me before I read this book if I knew anything about the murder of Francis Saville Kent, I would have blithely said that I knew all about it. After all I had read the Rhode book--The case of Constance Kent, (Famous trials series ), a famous cases anthology that contained a section on it and two novels that took the facts of the case as a jumping off place-- one by Francis King, ACT OF DARKNESS. which transposes the story to 1930's India, and won the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year Award.

However, I had no idea about the effect that this murder had on the public-- well, they were said to be outraged, but no one mentioned people driving through the property like it was on a modern tour route of scenes of famous murders. Further, the public (including Charles Dickens) speculated about it like a group of people on a true crime newsgroup going over and over the murder of Jon Benet Rameey. Individuals would write at times libelous letters to the press and the police with their own theories about the identity of the murderer and how the murder was accomplished.

If there are some facts about the murder that I would have liked to have included-- if they exist, they relate only to the particular strain of "Detective Fever" that I suffer from and not because the author advances any particular theory as "the" theory of the case. While she does do some speculation based on a line in a letter that might have been written or dictated by a member of the family in 1926 and sent to Rhode after the publication of his book-- it seems a bit medically dubious. She also doesn't try to deal with the very puzzling evidence of the lack of blood splatter as well as the mysterious bloody shift found by the police. She isn't an advocate as much as a reporter of the effect this murder had on the society of the period.

Although she regards the case as mostly solved, I still feel that some of the statements she writes in her paragraphs on Dickens' last, unfinished novel, Bleak House, could apply as well to the murder of a 3 year old boy in 1860 at a place called Road-Hill House.

If you had asked me before I read this book if I knew anything about the murder of Francis Saville Kent, I would have blithely said that I knew all about it. After all I had read the Rhode book--The case of Constance Kent, (Famous trials series. General editor: George Dilnot), a famous cases anthology that contained a section on it and two novels that took the facts of the case as a jumping off place-- one by Francis King, ACT OF DARKNESS. which transposes the story to 1930's India, and won the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year Award.

However, I had no idea about the effect that this murder had on the public-- well, they were said to be outraged, but no one mentioned people driving through the property like it was on a modern tour route of scenes of famous murders. Further, the public (including Charles Dickens) speculated about it like a group of people on a true crime newsgroup going over and over the murder of Jon Benet Ramey. Individuals would write at times libelous letters to the press and the police with their own theories about the identity of the murderer and how the murder was accomplished.

If there are some facts about the murder that I would have liked to have included-- if they exist, they relate only to the particular strain of "Detective Fever" that I suffer from and not because the author advances any particular theory as "the" theory of the case. While she does do some speculation based on a line in a letter that might have been written or dictated by a member of the family in 1926 and sent to Rhode after the publication of his book-- it seems a bit medically dubious. She also doesn't try to deal with the very puzzling evidence of the lack of blood splatter as well as the mysterious bloody shift found by the police. She isn't an advocate as much as a reporter of the effect this murder had on the society of the period.

Although she regards the case as mostly solved, I still feel that some of the statements she writes in her paragraphs on Dickens' last, unfinished novel, Bleak House, could apply as well to the murder of a 3 year old boy in 1860 at a place called Road-Hill House.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale is an indepth look at the beginnings of the detective in both police investigation and literature through a single case in England in 1860. A little boy's body is found slashed and thrown into a privy pit on his family's grounds, and everyone is suddenly a suspect. Inspector Jack Whicher is called in from Scotland Yard two weeks after the murder when the local constabulary is unable to come up with the name of the murderer. Whicher uses material evidence and listens closely to the statements of everyone involved to try and unravel the case. But when he arrests the 16 year old half-sister of the victim, the press and locals turn against him. Whicher, who was the inspiration for investigators by both Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, had developed an excellent reputation for sussing out the truth, but this case essentially destroyed his career, and even the sister's subsequent confession didn't rehabilitate him. The book is excellently researched and written. Summerscale maintains taut suspense throughout and raises several questions about the truth of the confession. She also exposes how the police and detectives were viewed by the public: first as intriguing geniuses, later as nosey, low-class bumblers. Summerscale writes an terrific book about the birth of the detective and traces his early formation in literature and life.

When I was young I used to read many mystery novels, and a lot of them originated in England. Invariably the murder was soved by the detective getting everyone together and revealing how the murder was done, and "who done it". It seemed that these were the only type of British mysteries being written, and I often wondered how this particular niche of the genre got started. This extremely well-written book has finally answered that question, and also tells an exciting true murder story. We get the origination of the detective in England, and also the origin of some of the words we see all the time in mysteries, such as "clue" or "sleuth". The detective has the facts of the murder, but couldn't prove it, and it destroyed his career in law enforcement. The solution only came several years later, and did not involve any police force. Even when the tale is almost done, the writer leaves us with the feeling that there was at least one other participant in the murder who was never brought to justice. Often life does not imitate art! This is an exciting book, and I highly recommend it.

I first heard about the Francis Saville Kent murder from a segment in the 1940s movie Dead of Night. I didn't know it was grounded in reality until I read Victorian Murderesses by Mary Hartman (which I also recommend). The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is well-written, all-encompassing--you get a great feel for the time period, literature, social mores, lifestyles, households, and other crimes--and at some point nail-bite inducing. I highly recommend the book.

Not only is the murder itself a fascinating puzzle but the author weaves into it the history of Victorian detective fiction and the ways in which reality and fiction interacted to create the figure of the modern 'detective'. Ms. Summerscale seems to have read everything and marshals all her scholarship in very readable form.

We always think of detectives and crime-solving as things that have gone on for centuries. In actual fact, Edgar Alan Poe invented the detective story in 1841, and the next year the British set up their first detective police to solve crimes where the criminal wasn't immediately apparent. For much of the 19th century these individuals were essentially making it up as they went along, and dealing with a variety of public prejudices (bobbies originally had to wear their uniforms all the time, to avoid corruption and the possibility of them sneaking up on someone) and strange practices to invent, as they went along, the craft of crime-solving.

In 1860, 18 years after the detective department was founded (they had offices in a square in downtown London known as Scotland Yard, hence the name) a young boy was killed in rural England. His throat was cut rather viciously, and he was thrown into a privy. The house in which he lived with his family was very large, and since the doors were locked, it seemed inevitable that the killer must be either a family member or a servant. After two weeks of inexpert investigation, which solved nothing, the local police petitioned London to send a Scotland Yard detective. The one they got was one of four Detective Inspectors, Jack Whicher, who according to the author was one of the original detectives who essentially invented his craft. His assistant, "Dolly" Williamson, went on to be superintendent of Scotland Yard during the `70s and `80s.

Whicher settled pretty quickly on who he believed was the culprit, but he was unable to obtain a confession and had scant physical evidence. He made an arrest, but the family closed ranks, and ultimately there was no immediate conclusion to the killing. This destroyed Whicher's career. He wound up retiring from the police a few years later, and worked intermittently as a private detective in later years. Eventually he was vindicated, and the case wrapped up, but he was never reinstated.

I enjoyed this book immensely. So much of what the author recounts found its way into detective novels of later years that it's amusing, to say the least. The characters are interesting, and so are their fates. I enjoyed this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone interested in true crime.

This is a wonderfully done true crime story of a murder in England in 1860. If that were all, we'd have an eminently enjoyable book. But this is also a social commentary and a history of the early detective story: you'll learn how and when the words "clueless" and "sleuth" entered the language, for example. You have a horrible murder of a 3-year-old boy in a manor house in the country. The outside doors, windows, and gates are all locked--and also, unusual for us nowadays, many of the interior doors were locked as well--preventing access to the larder, cellar, drawing-room, etc. So suspicion perforce falls upon the family and servants. This is before the days of forensic science--so it isn't even clear whether the child was killed by stabbing, throat-cutting, suffocation, or drowning. The local constabulary in this west England area are inadequate to the task in what very quickly becomes a sensationalist case, and so a detective from London is called in to investigate.

Detectives are new, only a couple of decades old, as are detective stories. Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher is Scotland Yard's best investigator (at the time, there weren't all that many). The child's family is not very well liked in the area, and the family itself has many unsavory secrets--including insanity. Summerscale relates Whicher's detective work and his growing fixation upon a 16-year-old sister. But what makes all of this particularly enjoyable is how Summerscale relates the sensationalism in the press, the plethora of theories as to the murder, the coming-forth of outsiders to confess, the initial belief in Whicher's abilities (followed by growing disbelief). There are wonderful descriptions of the detective novels of the time--including ones with female detectives--the public appetite for these stories, and the additions to the language (you'll see where clue/clew comes from). The child's nanny slept in the room with the child, who was taken during the night. Charles Dickens was one of the numerous people who put forth the theory that the child had discovered his father in bed with the nanny and had been killed to prevent him telling Mama. Actual solutions, however, were not readily forthcoming.

Whicher fell out of favor in the public eye--but he did pop up again in the other sensational case of the era--the Tichborne Claimant. (Hopefully, Summerscale will turn her prodigious talents to that case next). So what you get here is a fascinating view of the early days of detectivedom (if that's a word), the detective in fact and fiction, and the public's taste in literature. The book reads like a good detective novel, with well-portrayed characters: there are arrests, trials, maps, drawings, and photographs. A great book indeed!