Monday February 09, 2009

The suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House

This book written by Kate Summerscale is based upon a true story. It follows the tale of the murder of a toddler called Savile in his own house. Whicher is one of the UK's first detectives and he is brought in by the local police to investigate the murder of Saville. The murder is horrific as Saville's throat is cut so his head almost becomes detached from his body and he his disposed of in the privey.

The book is more than the story however. Summerscale investigates and comments on society at the time of the murder in 1860 and how it and the press react to these events. It is very interesting as some of the things we observe in our press, how they comment on the police was visible in 1860. Whicher was ridiculed when the case he built collapsed and it finished his career. When you read direct quotations in this book you realise how much the English language has changed over the years. Fiction was also being written about murders/detectives for the first time - shortly after the event Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holme's novel.

Eventually the murderer admits their guilt and they are sent to prison, their execution being commuted. Despite appeals they end up serving every day of the twenty year sentence. During this time many of the people in the story die but the murderer ends up living to the grand old age of a hundred and we follow their life up to the end. The final part of the book tries to understand why the crime was committed and suggests that in fact two people might have committed the crime. A good read.