Description
Book SynopsisThe fascinating story of a famous Victorian murder case - and the notorious detective who solved it
Trade ReviewIt is a beautiful piece, written with great lucidity and respect for the reader, and with immaculate restraint. A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing * John le Carre *
I can't think of another book which takes you so fast into the smells, tastes and atmosphere of that time -- Doris Lessing
A pacy analysis of a true British murder case from 1860, the unravelling of which involved one of the earliest Scotland Yard detectives and inspired sensation novelists such as Dickens and Wilkie Collins ... Absolutely riveting -- Sarah Waters * Guardian *
Summerscale has constructed nothing less than a masterpiece ... My shelves are stacked with books about crime, but none more satisfying than this -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
Gripping, unputdownable * Sunday Telegraph *
A terrific read in the Wilkie Collins tradition -- Susan Hill
A page-turning merging of scrupulous research with vivid storytelling. Full of atmosphere and stroking detail, it is a triumph * Observer *
There is some terrific detail in Summerscale's book ... What the book does brilliantly ... is look at notions of class, criminality, human nature and religion in an age of change ... Engrossing -- Ian Rankin * Guardian *
A remarkable achievement * Sunday Times *
Summerscale has produced not only a dazzling non-fiction thriller but also an acute work of literary and social history * Daily Express *
A tour de force. It sweeps us irresistibly into the investigation, turning us into armchair detectives ... Under teh spell of Kate Summerscale's scrupulous intelligence and mesmerizing research, we are drawn into a detective story within a detective story that takes us halfway into the 20th century * Daily Mail *
An unexpectedly moving thriller * Daily Telegraph *
Kate Summerscale brilliantly reconstructs the circumstance of the murder, the course of the investigation, and the long, sad consequences ... Her narrative has the dark fascination of the sensational fiction her subject helped to inspire * Spectator *
One of the Victorian era's most intriguing murder mysteries is given a fresh and gripping examination * Sunday Times *
A dramatic page-turning detective yarn of a real-life murder tat inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. Kate Summerscale has brilliantly merged scrupulous archival research with vivid storytelling that reads with the pace of a Victorian thriller ... leaves one gripped until the final paragraph -- Rosie Boycott
A thoroughly satisfying read, brilliantly researched, winningly told, and it's hard to see how this subject could have been better treated. It'll stand as a true crime classic * Evening Standard *
Fact and fiction do not so much blur as bleed into each other in
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ... Summerscale accomplishes what modern genre authors hardly bother to do any more, which is use a murder investigation as a portal to a wider world * New York Times *
The best whodunnit of the year - and it's all true. The fascinating story of a famous Victorian murder case and thedetective who solved it has all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery ... Agatha Christie, eat your heart out * Tatler *
