Murder most foul

    

     Kate Summerscale says in her introduction to The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House : "This book is modelled on the country-house murder mystery, the form that the Road Hill case inspired, and uses some of the devices of detective fiction". The real-life case seems to have been responsible for inspiring much fiction from The Moonstone, The Turn of the Screw and The Mystery of Edwin Drood to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and beyond. Its interest lies not just in its own facts - a gruesome murder which must have been committed by a member of the household - but in the involvement of and methods used by Inspector Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, one of the first eight detectives in the English-speaking world, and a man whose skills in observation, deduction and the judging of character made him famous.
    Whicher brought to this notorious 1860 case "an excellent memory, an eye for the incongruous, psychological acuity and confidence", but he needed all those attributes to overcome the efforts of a bumbling local police force, the 'helpful' theories as to the identity of the culprit held by many members of the public, and a type of national hysteria provoked by the facts of the case and their suggestion that behind the closed doors of apparently highly respectable homes were "hidden fantasies, buried desires, secret selves".
     This account of Whicher's suspicions, his investigation and later events makes for a highly readable book, one that's extremely well researched, written with great style, pace and a true feel for detail. It incorporates much social history and uses its raw material cleverly by developing character and carefully unfolding plot while always having the utmost respect for fact. I found it fascinating and would heartily recommend it as, clearly, did the judges of this year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction who awarded it that honour.