The year is 1860, and the tiny Wiltshire village of Road is reeling from an outrageous crime. Three year old Saville Kent has disappeared, seemingly taken from his cot in the middle of the night, and a brief search reveals his body stuffed down the side of a latrine in an outhouse. The cause of death is not immediately clear; what is clear, however, is that the innocent child has been the victim of a vicious murder.
"Country House Murder Mystery"
Even worse, the culprit appears to be a member of the household, as there are no signs of forced entry to the house. As Summerscale remarks, “this was the original country-house murder mystery, a case in which the investigator had to find not a person but a person’s hidden self. It was pure whodunnit, a contest of intelligence and nerve between the detective and the killer. Here were the twelve. One was the victim. Which was the traitor?” (chapter 6).
Detective Jack Whicher
The detective charged with uncovering this traitor is Jack Witcher, called down from London to investigate the murder. His task is not an easy one: the boy has been dead two weeks when he arrives, and a jury has already met to discuss and interrogate possible suspects.
The mother of the dead boy is eight months pregnant, and her husband is unpopular locally due to his role as a factory inspector. The village is awash with suspicion and rumour: “while a murder went unsolved, everything was potentially significant, packed with secrets. The observers, like paranoiacs, saw messages everywhere. Objects could only regain their innocence only when the killer was caught” (chapter 6).
It is Whicher’s job to decide what is significant and what is not – is the breast flannel discovered at the scene, or the missing nightdress belonging to one of the family really a clue?
Police Force in Victorian London
Summerscale’s book is a fascinating blend of an Agatha Christie-style murder, and a meticulously researched account of the policing system in early-Victorian Britain. Jack Whicher was one of the first detectives, and a much celebrated one, and the book is as much about him as it is about the killing of Saville Kent.
The writing is scholarly, with a detailed notes section providing further information about Suumerscale’s sources, as well as a lengthy bibliography, but she never loses sight of the gripping story at the heart of the book. Try to resist the urge to turn to the back of the back of the book to find out “whodunnit” – you will be well rewarded.
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale is published in the UK by Bloomsbury (paperback edition – 2009), ISBN 978-0-7475-9648-6.
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