…Or the Murder at Road Hill House.
Synopsis (from book cover):
It is midnight on 30th June 1860 and all is quiet in the Kent family’s elegant house in Road, Wiltshire. The next morning, however, they wake to find their youngest son has been the victim of an unimaginably gruesome murder. Even worse, the guilty party is surely one of their number – the house was bolted from the inside. As Jack Whicher, the most celebrated detective of his day, arrives at Toad to track down the killer, the murder provokes national hysteria at the thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes – scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy and loathing.
This true story has all the hallmarks of a classic gripping murder mystery. A body, a detective, a country house steeped in secrets and a whole family of suspects – it is the original Victorian who done it.
Revue:
Kate uses documentary evidence and newspaper articles of the time to explain the details of the case. There are wonderful descriptions of life in a well to do Victorian household. It also gives incite into policing and detective work which is in sharp contrast to it’s modern day equivalent.
The book starts off just before the child goes missing and explains how the murdered child is found. It then goes on to describes in detail the horrific wounds that were inflicted upon the body.
The book then details the different members of the household and how most of them could be considered as having a motive for the murder. The police made a lot of mistakes at the beginning of the case which led to vital clues and evidence being lost. Even the great detective Mr Whicher is brought in to solve the case cannot bring a case against the person he supects. Kate pieces together the evidence and the case unfolds over a number of years leaving the reader with more questions than answers and wondering if the case had really been solved…
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and other crime novels of the era used many ideas from this crime.
For a personal read I would give the book 4 stars and for a reading group 5 stars.
As good as Christie do you think? Or Josephine Tey?
Different to Christie it is more along the lines of the Moonstone. I have never read any Josephine Tey, I must check her out.
Her detective investigation of Richard III was classic. She is a cult author for the British mainly.
It sounds very much like something I would enjoy then