The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

The Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

By: Kate Summerscale

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

In June of 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all of England and led to a national obsession with detection - ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land.

At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable - that someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love today - from the cryptic Sergeant Cuff in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller, and in it author Kate Summerscale has fashioned a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.

©2008 Kate Summerscale (P)2008 HighBridge Company.

Critic reviews

"Not just a dark, vicious true-crime story; it is the story of the birth of forensic science, founded on the new and disturbing idea that innocent, insignificant domestic details can reveal unspeakable horrors to those who know how to read them." ( Time)
"A bang-up sleuthing adventure." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Fascinating

Summerscale tells the true story of the murder of 4 year old Saville Kent, and of the effect it had on his family and the Scotland Yard detective (Jack Whicher) sent to unravel the mystery. Whicher's accusation didn't hold up in court, and as a result his renown and career took a slow but steady decline.

Summerscale uses mainly primary sources to give information from the broad spectrum of public opinion, down to the minutiae of the Kent family daily life. The amount of information is fantastic, and the details give the reader a full picture of the times. Her prose does not sparkle, nor is it lively; at times it is down right dull. Regardless, this is a fascinating look into Victorian detection in general, Whicher and the Kent case in particular.

Simon Vance is an excellent narrator, and did a fine job with this.

Witty, Horrifying, Brillant Page Turner

Any additional comments?

I had to scan back through my audible records to get the correct number, I've listed to 61 works of nonfiction in the last year. This was HANDS DOWN the best. The narrator was fabulous, he did all the voices which was just lovely. The writing was beautiful. The author perfectly captured the intrigue of mid Victorian England, the devastating and baffling nature of the crime, and the advancement of the field of detection. It was well balanced, well paced, and fascinating from start to finish. 10/10 and I don't say that lightly.

Much interesting material, sometimes slow

This is a great book for history buffs and detective fiction buffs. The crime itself was shocking, and the character of one of the first murder detectives is interesting. At times it reads like a murder mystery, but there is also a great deal of historical detail about the early science of detection, its position in society and literature of the time, Whicher's prior cases, etc. This material really slowed the narrative down for me, and I found myself feeling the book was needlessly padded. I think both the story line and the historical material would have benefitted from being separated, so that they did not, as it were, keep interrupting each other.

Simon Vance is one of my all-time favorite narrators. The reason for the four stars is that I found his technique of reading the quotes in character voices jarring. Much of the first part of the book quotes various members of the household, police, etc., and I found the constantly-changing voices an irritation.

Informative and entertaining!

The similarities to the Jon Benet Ramsey murder are uncanny! Very informative on the history of the defective as well as entertaining!

Wow

Absolutely entrancing. Takes you deep into Victorian life. The entire book is fascinating. At the end you feel like you know the people and the tragedy.

Haunting & Exciting

What made the experience of listening to The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher the most enjoyable?

The content is amazing, the narrative unwinds quickly and yet with plenty of suspense. It's super gruesome yet also sensitive and never gratuitously graphic, and it's real-life hero is a gem. Also the performance is absolutely amazing.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher?

The ending is a stunning culmination of all the evidence in the book, and of course the actual crime I still think about sometimes (not necessarily in a good way)...seriously horrific.

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He's a genius. His tone is fantastic.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

I love mystery stories (like Agatha Christie) and this was the origin of the genre of the English Country House mystery- fascinating to see how press disseminated evidence and got the entire country caught up in the puzzle of such a (even by modern standards) brutal crime and also to see how it influenced the writing that would come after for years and years.

Any additional comments?

I flinch at violence usually, as I've said though its not gratuitous and the overall information in the book is completely fascinating. If you love the "manor house" type mystery genre this is sort of an origins story and a real life version of something I thought was purely a literary device.

VERY INTERESTING

Would you listen to The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher again? Why?

Yes, I probably would.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher?

There's nothing "memorable" about the murder of an innocent child.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Simon Vance is a master! You can't make a comparison when an artist ALWAYS gives a great performance. I listen to books that I'm not even interested in if Mr. Vance is narrating.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

That there were many "thinking" detectives long before now. Cops in the 19th century didn't have the benefit of DNA and all the forensics tools now available. Whicher was on the money with his suspicions. Unfortunately he was way ahead of time.

Background on police work

Very interesting to find origins of so many detective words. Many literary works referenced.

Great historical story, but padded for length

This is a fascinating story that gives as much insight into Victorian English society as it does on this one famous but forgotten crime. The only negative I can attach to this book is that at many times throughout, it feels as if multiple nearly identical quotes from newspapers and letters were cited, and minute details were included -- nothing was added by these things except for length, and in fact it felt tedious and repetitive. It genuinely felt to me as if the author was trying to meet some mandatory word count. But aside from this, the story is remarkable, at times frustrating and maddening, and the twists and revelations near the end are worth the cost of admission.

Great thriller with a very strong good amount of history

I enjoyed this one greatly- I loved the amount of research put into the work. The author really put a huge amount of effort into telling the story and it shows - great job!!