The suspicions of Mr Whicher

Reads like a (badly written) Phd....but I still enjoyed it! I don't think she knew whether she wanted to write fiction, non-fiction, social history or what so it is all over the place, and she just writes plain badly at times......

Didn't enjoy it at all. Don't think it should be sold as a novel because it is just a load of research with barely any narrative binding it together.

Yes some of the detail/fact was interesting but on the whole it was really dull.

I read this because friends of ours live in Rode (as it is now) & I know the house, from the outside anyway.

It was ok. Dragged in the middle & I took ages reading it because I kept leaving it & starting other books. I too found the other cases dull & wondered why she was mentioning them. I did finish it but it was a 'so what' moment. The last bits about the brother & the sister were interesting though - amazing that she lived so long! But you could tell that the author was transcribing & padding out censuses & the like.

Getting back to Mr Whicher, I was in 2 minds about this - I've read a lot of true crime in my time, especially Victorian cases (ah, they had a better class of criminal in the old days, you know! ), and I was really surprised that Kate Summerscale's book was sold as being about 'a long-forgotten 19thc murder'.

Actually the case is really well-known - even nowadays! I don't think she added a great deal to it, and I wasn't massively convinced by her musings on the 'invention' of the detective by Dickens and Wilkie Collins. OK, I bought it, and enjoyed it up to a point, but like others, I came away feeling a bit 'so what?'. I'd secretly been hoping that she'd made some sensational discovery that either proved or disproved things (I'm trying hard not to give the end away!).

Incidentally, there's a great novel by Francis King which is directly based on the Road Hill House murder - he set it in colonial India. It's called 'Act of Darkness'. Possibly out of print now, though.

I enjoyed it. Discussed it with my book club and they generally had the view that the person who was thought to have been the killer may have been covering up for the real killer. Also the medics in the group were particularly interested in the venereal disease aspect and what effect that might have had on the family.

the Gargoyle is the best book ive read in AGES! gave me goose bumps. its by Andrew Davidson and i think its his first book. brilliant brilliant fiction.

I really wanted to like it but I got bored about half way through and ditched it for something better.

It's fiction but I forget who by. Think it was a R and J but don't let that put you off. It was really interesting.

dim question here, but who is the gargoyle by, is it fiction?

I love all the Jackson Brodies, difficult to rate them against Whicher though.

Gave up about half way through, was very dull.

I enjoyed The gargoyle much more. The Atkinson less so.

i read it and thought it was dull dull dull. i did manage to stick with it but mainly cos i was trapped on a train with nothing but that to read!
i couldnt help but feel strange about it knowing it was about a real life child murder though.
it won the galaxy book award thingy and i cant think why when "the gargoyle" and "when will there be good news" were also competitors.

Pennies and Sherby - as someone who gave up several days of their life for this - you made the right decision.

However, go back and read the last 1 or 2 chapters - that's a really interesting story and I felt cheated that I'd had to read all the author's detailed research (which is basically the rest of the book) and then the interesting bits of the story (IMHO) are really rushed and felt almost as an after thought.

I am going against the grain here - I loved the Dickens and Collins references and the links to the detective fiction genre; loved the 'character' of the detective too but thought as a narrative it dragged on and on and on and got really boring at the end.

2/3 sherby? You did well. Barely made it to halfway before giving up. Can only think of about 2 other books that I've done that with.

I gave up about 2/3 through and I NEVER do that

All the refering back to other cases bored me to tears

Aaarrggh hated it. Opening was excellent but the rest was turgid and repetitive. I second the annoyance at the constant references to Dickins and Collins and the pseudo fiction element of it wound me up (e.g. what Whicher had for dinner after a hard day examining nightdresses, what was going through his head as he caught the 10:53 from Paddington, which departed from platform 4 etc etc). Yawn.

I loved it,I read a lot of crime fiction but this was something else : disturbing because true and grisly, but I loved the social history etc. Hard for Kate S to repeat I should think though - anyone know if she has anything else in the pipeline?

Oh I loved this book - and am forcing DH to read it now. It was strangely complusive - and so well-researched. I loved the obsessive level of detail - not sure what that says about me .

It was skilfull, but left me a bit cold tbh.

Was certainly pretty dry, and all of the people seemed very remote and difficult to relate to somehow.

The books I enjoy most can inspire me to write myself, but the almost obsessive level of detail in Whicher was all a bit intimidating for my liking.

It was ok, I skipped bits, it got a bit soggy in the middle

I have just started it - I'm interested in it as I'm a health and safety inspector - wish I could afford a house with all the servants!

Finding it a bit tough to get into as I have to concentrate on what's being said - not my average chick lit type rubbish I normally read.

I really enjoyed it to a point. Then got to the end and went "oh". Actually out loud. And not in a delighted kind of way - just a very quiet, "oh that's that then" kind of way!

I have to admit I was disappointed by it. I enjoyed it but not as much as I thought i would from the reviews on the back cover.

Now reading Cloud Atlas and 20 pages in I'm having to sit with a dictionary!

Off to google the house!!