The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House - Kate Summerscale

'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder of Road Hill House' (yes that is the title not me unable to make up my mind on the book I'm reviewing) by Kate Summerscale has been every where the last few months. Published by Bloomsbury in April 2008 it has topped various best sellers lists. A Richard and Judy 2009 Book club book, it has won The Galaxy book of the year 2009 award, Th BBC Four Samual Johnson non-fiction book of the year 2008 prize and Play.com 2009 Popular Non Fiction Award. It has topped the most 'requested swap' list on popular book swapping website ReadItSawpIt for months. The book tells the story of a real murder that happened at Road Hill ...  Read the complete review

Winner of the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize, this is a true story of a murder mystery that gripped this Country in 1860 and for many years afterwards. At midnight on the 30th June 1860, 3 year old Saville Kent is gruesomely murdered and the family realise that he was murdered by someone in their household - the house is always bolted from the inside at night and therefore only the family and the live in servants could be on the suspect list. Jack Whicher is assigned to solve the case and throughout the book he begins to unravel the lives of the Kents, the motives the back-stories and the gossip surrounding the family. Who could have ...  Read the complete review

On the night of 30 June 1860 the Kent family retire for the night in Road Hill House in Wiltshire, Samuel Kent taking particular care to make sure that the house is locked up with the windows bolted and shutters closed. When nursemaid Elizabeth Gough wakes and finds that three year old Saville Kent is not in his cot she assumes that his mother has taken him to sleep in her room. When his mother Mary wakes up the house is thrown into panic when they realise the boy has disappeared from his bed. Searchers later discover that Saville had been brutally murdered with his tiny body stuffed down the servants privy. Early investigation by the local police does ...  Read the complete review

I always enjoy a good murder mystery and I am very fond of historical fiction so I though this book about the first country house murder investigated by Scotland Yard would be right up my alley. Was it? Well, yes and no. First of all I must emphasis that this is not a historical novel. It is nonfiction and relates only the known facts of the murder at Road Hill House. In the wee hours of a summer day in 1860, a three year old boy is abducted from his bed and stuffed down an outdoor toilet after his throat is brutally cut. Detective Jack Whicher of the newly formed Scotland Yard is sent to investigate and unearths a can of worms behind the closed doors of a ...  Read the complete review

In 1860's Wiltshire a young boy has been murdered taken from his bed at night and murdered it seems only someone from inside the house could have committed the crime... I love crime dramas and enjoy working out who the bad guy is, this book let me down in this regard. the murder was revealed far to early for my liking. This book can be read for two perspectives, one as a true crime story, and the other as a history of detective in the met police. As a true crime story its slightly lacking, it's written as an outside view. This leaves the reader lacking in personal information, and the book feeling a bit dry. While not embellishing with imagined detail is an ...  Read the complete review