Critical Praise

"[A] fastidious reconstruction and expansive analysis of the Road Hill murder case…Summerscale smartly uses an energetic narrative voice and a suspenseful pace, among other novelistic devices, to make her factual material read with the urgency of a work of fiction."

—The New York Times Book Review

"A terrific book...opens up a dark door in the Victorian credenza --- dense with detail, and yet with a nimbleness to the writing that's unusual even for a very good detective story."

—Nicholson Baker

"This is one eloquent doozy of a true-crime thriller."

—Entertainment Weekly

"The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher combines a thumping good mystery yarn with fine social and literary history."

—Fresh Air