Description:
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House is that rarity indeed: a work of non-fiction that reads like the best of historical novels. Londoner Kate Summerscale, former literary editor for the Daily Telegraph is also author of The Queen of Whale Cay which was the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and shortlisted for the prestigious Whitbread biography award. This is to say that she knows how to put together an elegant and captivating biography. This fantastic, masterfully composed book focuses, as the cover page promises, on the murder and undoing of a great Victorian detective. The detective in question is Jonathan Whicher, who is undone when he solves the murder of a three-year-old found at the bottom of an outhouse. Whicher correctly identifies the killer as a member of the boy’s family, but he is unable to provide irrefutable evidence for his case and subsequently languishes in utter disgrace. Eventually, he is vindicated, but it is much too late for him, a broken man, to resume his career. Read this one for its grace, narration, and sheer powerful style. [LM]