The Suspicions Of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

 

In 1860 a horrible crime occurs in England.  During the night, a three year old boy, Saville Kent, is kidnapped, his throat cut and stuffed down an outside privy.  He lived with his parents, a sister and three stepsisters and a stepbrother, along with several servants.  Mr. Kent had married the governess of his first family when his first wife died and they had two children plus the second wife was pregnant again.  All of England was shocked.  Who would kill a small boy in such a horrific fashion?

It was the infancy of detection and there were only eight detectives in London and none elsewhere.  The best of these eight was Jonathan Whicher and he was sent to the countyside in order to solve the crime.  He soon determined that the crime had to be committed by someone who lived in the house but who would do such a thng?

As the days went by, Whicher's suspicions settled on fifteen year old Constance Kent.  She had a missing nightgown and several of her friends reported that she thought her stepmother treated the new family better than the first.  But could she have done this without detection?  Did she have help?

Kate Summerscale has focused her career on recreating Victorian crimes.  This murder and the detective that worked the case were used as examples in the writing of Charles Dickens and William Wilkie Collins.  The book is extensively researched and the reader learns about Victorian society, the rise of the detective and the lives of all involved.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction and true crime.