A review by jmatkinson1
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale
5.0
In July 1895 two boys left their home in Plaistow to go to see the cricket at Lords, they enjoyed the match, ate out and went to the theatre. Their father had gone to sea but their mother was supposedly visiting a relative in Liverpool, the two were being looked after by a family acquaintance they said. However, after pawning some goods, the money started running out and the neighbours grew suspicious. When they gained entry to the house they found that the mother, Emily Coombes, had been murdered and her eldest son, Robert, confessed to the act. Narrating the story of the Coombes brothers, their trial and the consequences, this book looks at crime and punishment in late Victorian England.
Kate Summerscale always produces an interesting and well-researched book. She has a knack of finding an obscure criminal case and, through meticulous research, putting it into context with the social history to which it belongs. For the main part of this book that is what happens, a narrative about the background to a crime, the trial and the punishment meted out. However it is actually the epilogue which takes this book into another league. A minor lead enables Summerscale to complete the story of Robert Coombes and how he found redemption after punishment. This is so unexpected and so wonderful that it completes the book perfectly.
Kate Summerscale always produces an interesting and well-researched book. She has a knack of finding an obscure criminal case and, through meticulous research, putting it into context with the social history to which it belongs. For the main part of this book that is what happens, a narrative about the background to a crime, the trial and the punishment meted out. However it is actually the epilogue which takes this book into another league. A minor lead enables Summerscale to complete the story of Robert Coombes and how he found redemption after punishment. This is so unexpected and so wonderful that it completes the book perfectly.