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Original poster

The suspicions of Mr Whicher

32 replies

Maria2007 · 08/07/2009 17:41

Not sure if this should go in adult fiction or adult non fiction (since it's a bit like a detective novel aka fiction, but actually is based on true story). Have just started reading this & am captivated, it's really fascinating & written in a very interesting, factual, dry way with no emotionality. Anyone else read it? By the way, I'm just only 1/3rd through so please please please don't spoil the ending!!

OP posts:
BirdyArms · 08/07/2009 18:06

I'm about 1/3 way though it and am really enjoying it, although find some of the historical parts, particularly the references to Dickens and Wilkie Collins, are interupting my fascination with the details of the family and the house.

MildredRoper · 08/07/2009 18:00

The house is still there although it's called something else. If you google you can see present day pictures of it. But don't google until you've finished or you will see who done it.

MildredRoper · 08/07/2009 17:54

Yes I have. I found the discussion about Victorian ideas around family privacy very interesting. Especially when you compare it to now, when people have television cameras in their homes, and the state has quite a lot of power over our family lives.

I found the story of the murder very disturbing though!

MarsLady · 08/07/2009 17:53

Very very good book! I really enjoyed it.

Not a quick read by any means, but totally fascinating.

Itsjustafleshwound · 08/07/2009 17:49

Is this extra-curricular reading Maria ??

Original poster
Maria2007 · 08/07/2009 17:48

Yes exactly LaDiDaDi, there is loads of period detail which is fascinating, you're right. I'm reading it right after finishing 'the little stranger' by Sarah Waters, and that I read right after finishing 'Rebecca' by Daphne de Maurier so I'm kind of plunged for the last 2 months into late 19th century Victorian England & big families in huge houses with lots of servants... I'm finding in particular the descriptions of the houses in all these books utterly absorbing.

OP posts:
LaDiDaDi · 08/07/2009 17:44

I really enjoyed it too and it was a total change from my usual reading material.

So much period detail that was fascinating, it made me think a lot about the media and public perceptions and how things have changed or not.

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