It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, reaches Road Hill House a fortnight later. He faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects. The murder provokes national hysteria. The thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes - scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing - arouses fear and a kind of excitement. But when Whicher reaches his shocking conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment. A true story that inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery - a body; a detective; a country house steeped in secrets. In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid, extraordinary life.

Excellent book about the early days of detective work

Given to non-BCer

Got this back so set to available

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left on the shelf by the door

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Picked up today at The Bean. I already have a copy of this book so will take it to the Meet at Rugby tomorrow.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taken to the meet.

Taken from the meet.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

This was a duplicate I had so I'm taking this to the meet

An interesting story with some interesting pictures to go with it. Superb research. Was worried for a minute that we wouldn't find out who committed the murder. Bit different from the normal novels that I read. Fascinating that it's actually a true story, and I like the way that the author has woven the writers of the day into it and how they developed the idea of the detective. Not for everybody - didn't rate very highly at our Reading Group :O(

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have enjoyed what i have read so far and have no clue as to who commited the crime

good read

This book is back on the bookcrossing shelves in central library.