Review of "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher"

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher have confirmed my—forgive the repetition—suspicions about the nature of Victorian life. The book investigates a brutal 1860 murder of a three-year-old boy, Saville. The child was found in the servant's outhouse, his throat deeply slit. When the local police are unable to figure out who committed the crime, Jonathan Whicher, a brilliant officer and detective from Scotland Yard, is called to solve the case. The man delves into the household of Samuel and Mary Kent, the parents of Saville. What he finds begins to unravel the facade of the time—infidelity, insanity, and general scandal.

With that, I feel that The Suspicions of Mr Whicher epitomizes the Victorian era. In so much of what we have read in class, plots, while seemingly innocent, often run amuck after deeper consideration. For example, The Jungle Books—a children's story—reveal Kipling's bias toward colonialism. Also, in The Coming Race, Lytton emphasized what would become of Victorian society without the art and the humanities. Or, Lewis Carroll portrays the ridiculousness and roundabout circles made in such a culture.

Suspicions, at least for me, summed up the class. I had no idea what was in store when reading this book, and I was pleasantly surprised at how it portrayed and manifested Victorian England. Underneath that prudish mask—which Summerscale rips off with grace and detail—is something innately sinister.