Customer Reviews
A good read - By: Anon, 17 Nov 2008 
I usually take ages to read a book but this one took a couple of weeks as I couldn't put it down. Very enjoyable & well written.
There is a brilliant book in here somewhere... - By: P. Mitchell, 14 Nov 2008 
Judging by most of the reviews here, I am alonein the fact that I had not heard of the Constance Kent case before & was lucky enough to be kept guessing about the identity of the murderer until near the end. Summerscale is undoubtedly a good writer, but she can't decide what she wants this book to be - a murder investigation, a book on the development of the UK's detective force or a historical review of the origins of detective fiction. When Summerscale is actually writing about the murder, it is fascinating, it is only when she veers off on repetitive tangents about Wilkie Collins et al that it becomes a drag to turn the pages. If only she had kept herself to the murder, it would have been a great read instead of an average one. There are many potentially fascinating plot strands that are just ignored, such as the possible involvement of her brotherin the murder & Constance's later lifein Australia. Perhaps giving more than a few paragraphs to the little things like what happened to the rest of the characters, where she is buried & even the suggestion she was Jack the Ripper would have been far more interesting than quoting bits from 'The Moonstone' for the hundredth time....
A good read, filled with a lot of crap along the way. Prepare for the odd experience of being fascinated & bored to death all with the same book.
Like stepping into a time machine - By: C. Wilson, 03 Nov 2008 I still have a little of this book to read so shouldn't really be reviewing it yet! However, having read some of the other reviews I had to make my own point.
First of all I bought it mainly because I livein the area & someone had talked to me about it as she livedin the village where it happened. This somehow brought it to 'life' for me & the fact that I like murder/mystery & whodunnits seemed to guarantee it as a good read.
I haven't been disappointed & have had to ration myself so I can make it last. It is detailed & some others here have said TOO detailed - the money values, where Whicher lived & stayed etc. But I LIKE this as it makes it all feel very real to me because let's face it, the story itself is fairly thin & could be told quite rapidly & it is slightly a cop- out that the murderer is only found because he/she confesses rather than being caught by skilled detective work. But that is what happened so can't be changed.
I actually liked the social comment & placing & the fine detail more than anything real as it brought me firmly into the period. I could almost smell the worldin which this family the the detectives lived & I think this is what the author intended so we could fully understand Whicher's world. I had been researching my own family tree back to this era of history so was doubly interested as it gave me some idea how my relatives lived. (well, not quite like this though, thankfully!!)
With a recent child murder (as yet unsolved) still with us all & accusations of police blunders - so nothing new there, we can really feel this book & the full horror of it. I possibly would like to have had had MORE detail about the family reactions to the discovery which somehow never quite came out. I mean, can a person every really recover from the murder of a child like this - yet this family carried on & had more children - moved away a few times but really just carried on.
Poor old Whicher, no DNA or forensics - he was reduced to listening to local gossip & trying to 'read' faces. Or maybe, just maybe that is the way we should approach crime given that his first & only hunch was right. Yes,I know we don't or can't convict on a hunch but it does get the brain thinking.
A great read & I am looking forward to the final chapter. If you like the detective genre - especially real life crime you will probably love this but if you also love social history then you will definitely LOVE this but if you expect too much you could well be disappointed. Isn't that always the way?
I hear the house was or still is up for sale recently .. & that it has a real 'life' ghost! Let's hope if it is Francis Kent, that someone has cleaned him up a bit (from being down the 'privy') for him to haunt the house ...
suspicions of mr whicher - By: Mr. David Feltham, 03 Nov 2008 
This book could of been half the size . Padded out with repeated info which became boring .I became very borded half way through & could't wait to finish.
I don't know how this one prizes!!!
A thorough examination of a murder - By: J. Bowen, 28 Oct 2008 This book, which has won prizes & many plaudits this year, is the true story of a murder that occuredin Road, Somersetin the middle of the 19th Century.
This might not grab you as all that noteworthy, but it grabbed public opinion at the time & contributed to the growth of a new type of book, the murder mysteryin a country house, that the likes of Sherlock Holmes & Agatha Christie would make their own only a few years latter.
This book is interesting & if you'rein any way intreguedin this sort of history, you should consider reading this book. If you're not someone who typically reads factual books, however, you might find this book slighty dry & cold if I'm honest with you.
