Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 I absolutely disagree October 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the worst book I've read for a long time. "Pacey" is not the word - in fact I have trouble staying awake. The Author frequently digresses from the main plot (which, all told would take up less than a quarter of the book) to examine in detail things like excerpts from 3 different newspaper articles saying more or less the same thing, quotes from Sigmund Freud, Whichers' previous cases (which although interesting rarely add anything to the progression of the story), and anything else which could possibly hinder the sloppy storytelling.
Then we have the fact that the story teller sees fit to remind us at every opportunity of previous stated clues - something she doubtless decided the story needed with all the frequent asides. The book honestly reads like an academic work like a thesis rather than the story it claims.
Well researched? Yes. Well written? Action packed? Pacey? Indeed not. I would avoid this book, and I feel slightly angry that I was tricked by the back cover into thinking it was something it wasn't, and buying it.
 The Emperor's New Clothes October 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to say that this book, although much touted, is not the wonder the reviewers in the UK media have made it out to be. Most of them know nothing about true crime and they have seized on this book as though it were the Holy Grail. It's dull and plodding, and suggestive of segments that I have read elsewhere. There are many books about the Constance Kent case ("Cruelly Murdered", "Saint - with Red Hands?" are two that instantly come to mind) which are a lot more informative than this book and as for Mr Whicher and Constance Kent , Dickens' letters to friends about this case is the best place for the media information of the time and a great novelist's take on the case - not this mind-numbing piece of self importance.
 history of a murder October 3, 2008
Simply brilliant book. The fascinating storylines, quality of research and the craftmanship with which they were woven together has made this one of the best books I've read this year. This book will please both popular history buffs and crime fiction afficnados. Will definately be on the lookout for Kate Summerscales next book.
Absolutely Brilliant September 21, 2008
I wanted to buy this book when it first came out but I did not get the opportunity until recently.
It was such a good read and it is impossible put down once you start. Immense amount of research has gone into the book and therefore praise goes to the author. She has achieved a master piece.
The book was delightful to the last page. This has to be one of the best books I have ever read.
 Victorian Scandal - murder in middle class family - read all about it! September 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's 1860 when a three year old boy is murdered in a country house and only someone inside the house, be it family or servant, could have been the perpretrator. Enter one of the first real detectives - Mr Whicher, who is called in to investigate.
Victorian society was scandalised by this case firstly that this brutal murder should have happened in a 'respectable middle-class family, and secondly that the police were now allowed to intrude on every aspect of the family's life to solve the crime. Society may have been disgusted, but echoing today's tabloid frenzys, they lapped up everything about the murder in the press, which followed the case in great detail.
Poor Mr Whicher though, is confounded by the family and the local police who won't give anything away - although he knows whodunnit. His failure to prove it gets him roasted by the press and hinders the fledgling detective department. In years to come, events are to take interesting turns, which keeps the case in the public eye, (at least until Jack the Ripper comes on the scene), and someone is jailed for the murder.
The author presents a meticulously researched and readable analysis of the case, which is compared and contrasted with the new genre of detective fiction - DIckens' 'Bleak House' and Collins' 'The Moonstone' were influenced by this particular case. What is fascinating, are the skeletons in their closets, the supposed madness in the family, and what happened next to them all.
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