(no subject)

[skygiants]

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective reads a lot like an actual murder mystery, except it's a murder mystery that occasionally takes long digressions into literary-criticism to discuss the origins and development of detective fiction, with a hefty dose of historical dorkery and LOLVICTORIANS for good measure. So basically it is pretty much my perfect nonfiction book!

The book focuses on the murder of three-year-old Saville Kent, who disppeared from the governess' bedroom one night and turned up with his throat slashed in the privy the next day. It basically turned into a real-life locked-room mystery, and everyone in England had an opinion: was it the governess? The father? The disgruntled gardener? The creepy teenaged half-siblings? Local police bumbled about in the way that you usually see in a Sherlock Holmes story, losing pieces of evidence and getting themselves locked in the kitchen when they were supposed to be investigating overnight, and finally they call in: JACK WHICHER, ~*~VICTORIAN DETECTIVE~*~

ENGLAND: Awesome! A genius detective! This is just like those Auguste Dupin stories, I am super excited to watch the case unfold.
JACK WHICHER, ~*~VICTORIAN DETECTIVE~*~: I think Constance the sixteen-year-old half-sister did it.
LOCAL POLICE: Do you have proof?
JACK WHICHER: She lost a nightgown in the laundry. A SUSPICIOUS nightgown.
LOCAL POLICE: Anything else?
JACK WHICHER: . . . I have a hunch!
LOCAL POLICE: . . .
JACK WHICHER: Look, haven't you ever read a detective story before? Detectives get hunches! Then they construct a plausible scenario based on a minimum of evidence and people believe them because detectives are geniuses. That's how it works!
LOCAL POLICE: Even in Victorian England, we actually still need more proof than that.
JACK WHICHER: Teenaged girls are creepy, okay! Beautiful Creatures? Anyone?
LOCAL POLICE: NOT GUILTY, and shame on you for stalking and accusing an innocent teenaged girl.
ENGLAND: Jack Whicher, we are disappoint. Man, I never realized before, but detectives are jerks!

And then Jack Whicher went home and sulked while ALL OF ENGLAND wrote him helpful letters explaining their theories about the case.

JACK WHICHER'S BOSS: Hey Jack Whicher did you see that someone thinks the governess -
JACK WHICHER: YES I SAW THE LETTER ABOUT THE GOVERNESS. >.<
JACK WHICHER'S BOSS: Well maybe do you think you should -
JACK WHICHER: IT WAS CONSTANCE. GO AWAY.

My favorite part of the book was hearing about the random people who got super-invested in attempting to solve the murder from the clues in the newspaper, as if it really was in a detective novel, and the way the whole event was sort of shaped into a fictional story in the collective consciousness, because I am a dork and find this stuff fascinating. (I also loved the chapter about the random person who decided he was an amateur detective and started holding investigations of all the largely-unrelated townspeople in the courthouse. "And where were YOU on the night of the murder?" "Uh, asleep . . .?")

Because the book really does read suspensefully enough to be a fictional murder story, I'm not going to spoil you by telling you who eventually confessed to the murder (history can still be spoilers!) but I will tell you that I found the public reaction to the confession possibly even more fascinating than the reaction to the first go-round of accusations. If you like mysteries and Victorians, I would say this is pretty guaranteed to be of interest!

Comments

[sandrylene.livejournal.com]

Ha! This sounds priceless, and I definitely need to find this one and experience it. :D

[skygiants]

It was really enjoyable! Usually I'm much slower with nonfiction than I am with fiction, but I was racing through this one.

[ceitfianna]

Ooh, I think I need this one. I loved The Great Train Robbery and this is even more mystery like.

Also I need to figure out some sort of mystery icon, I read enough of them.

[skygiants]

I haven't read much true-crime stuff, but as far as it goes I think this is an excellent example.

SUSPICIOUS INVESTIGATIN' SOKKA serves me well, but then, I think Sokka goes well with almost any occasion.

[ceitfianna]

I've read some, I always like histories that read like good narratives.

Also I love having access to a big library, Michigan has it.

[skygiants]

Yeah, it was a best-seller-type thing - I stumbled over it at random in the library, after having vaguely noted it on the bestseller table at the bookstore once, and grabbed it up before I could forget again.

[mercuriazs.livejournal.com]

THIS SOUNDS INTENSELY FASCINATING.

[skygiants]

There is just something about the Victorians, man! I don't know, maybe it is all the repression. And the ruffles.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Normally I don't like true crime but this sounds quite fun! It is going on THE LIST.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I generally only read true-crime when it's ~historical~ true crime, because then I can tell myself that I'm learning something and not just being voyeuristic. And there is a lot of historical and literary analysis going on in this book, so that works for me!

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

I've read that! I liked the part about what the "murderer" got up to in later life.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I thought that was really interesting! (In fact, I just was talking with another friend of mine about that and whether it's common for people who do one dramatically horrible thing to then settle down and lead quiet, peaceable, leper-nursing lives.)

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

And get telegrams from the Queen!

[skygiants]

And, if you buy the author's hypothesis, photograph fish! Though I will admit, I was not quite sure she needed to include quite so many of the actual photographs of fish as centerplates in the book - I mean, yes, they were very pretty, but probably expensive to print and not really all that applicable . . .

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

And invent the first reliable way to culture pearls, I seem to remember, if we're going with that.

[skygiants]

Yes! A person of many if also possibly murderous talents.

[oneechan19.livejournal.com]

I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but I think I'm going to have to read this one.

[skygiants]

It is a good kind of gateway nonfiction drug, I think! You know, the kind of book that reads mostly like fiction but still allows you the smug feeling that you are Learning Something.

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

This book sounds totally and utterly amazing. I think I may buy it.

[skygiants]

I think you'll enjoy it! I thought it was a ton of fun.

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

Payday in a week, so yes. :D How are you, anyway?

[skygiants]

I am good overall! Still excited about NOT BEING LOCKED IN MY APARTMENT. <3 How are you?

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

Also good overall! There was a typhoon today, I was kind of hoping for more drama but it was really just miserable rain and wind. I also had an AWESOME haircut, which I was very apprehensive about since I don't exactly know the Japanese for 'layers' and 'oh shit don't cut that much off'. But I was unnecessarily worried!

[skygiants]

*cracks up* Useful phrases to know for future, though . .

I know the feeling, I kept secretly hoping for earthquakes in California and getting nothing. We did have a ginormous hailstorm last week! But it did nothing dramatic except tragically murder all my plants. :(

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

I'm also secretly hoping for an earthquake. I mean, a big one, there's already been several little ones.