The events of the shocking 1860 Road Hill
House murder and the efforts to solve the crime form the backbone of the book.
It was a classic country house mystery where the murderer seemingly had to be
one of the household – family, visitor or staff.
Mr Whicher from the relatively newly formed
detective service at Scotland Yard is eventually put on the case, and has to
probe apart the genteel and respectable family façade to discover who had the
means, motive and opportunity. To do so required breaking down the traditional
police deference to the moneyed classes.
As the story unfolds Summerscale broadens
her canvas to include the development of the detective service - in which
Whicher was prominent, almost achieving celebrity status – and detective
fiction. Art imitated life as bluff working class, but intelligent and
articulate, policemen began to appear in popular fiction, for example Inspector
Bucket in Bleak House and Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone.
The book weaves together these themes nicely
with the discourses on detectives and detective fiction long enough to be
informative but short enough not to detract from the main narrative. The
contextual social history is similarly well integrated.
The prose is measured as befits the book’s
documentary nature, but pace and interest is maintained throughout the 300+
pages, as the reader is teased with new revelations over a 70 year period. Even
beyond then titbits of information emerge that embellish the extraordinary
story further.
Overall an unusual and fascinating adjunct
to the detective fiction genre.
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