Customer Reviews:
 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.
If she'd only kept to the plot .... August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book exists of three interwoven strands: a recounting of a murder, a social history of the period that the murder occured, and discussions of contemporary crime fiction.
The first strand worked fine, and I appreciate the necessity of the second, but the detours into the contemporary crime fiction completely ruined the rhythm of the book for me. Where I had been hooked, I found my mind wandering, hoping the book would get back on track in as short a time as possible.
The prose was also, at times, rather too flowery for my liking.
I would have enjoyed the book more if it were a straight account of the murder which, it must be said, the author has researched very well.
 Gripping - for a while August 25, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Initially, I loved this book. It was gripping, and Summerscale is a great storyteller, able to pack her narrative with detail without becoming tedious. But about halfway through it just ran out of steam for me. Having not been able to put it down, I suddenly did, and couldn't be bothered to pick it up again.
interesting, but not gripping enough for me... August 23, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I found this book a bit of a chore, I'm afraid. It is very informative regarding the birth of the detective novel and the history of crime detection, but we know quite early on who the murderer is, so there is no suspense. Every page is littered with endless names of people and places, and I ended up flicking through pages to get on the with main business of the book. Very well written and researched, but not one for your holiday luggage!
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