The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a gripping tale of a real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. In June 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was tragically found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. This horrific crime shocked all of England and sparked a national obsession with detection. Ironically, it nearly destroyed the career of perhaps the greatest detective of the time, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

At the time, detectives were a new invention; there were only eight in all of England, and they were rarely called out of London. Yet, this crime was so appalling that Scotland Yard dispatched its best man, Inspector Whicher, to investigate.

Whicher quickly suspected the unthinkable: someone within the family was responsible for young Saville Kent's murder. However, without sufficient evidence or a confession, his case remained circumstantial, and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the true legacy of Jonathan Whicher endures in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective archetype that has captivated readers for generations.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller. In it, Kate Summerscale crafts a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.