The Wicked Boy

“Kate Summerscale is deft at interweaving weaving her narrative with extensive quotes from court proceedings and press accounts. Don’t look to “The Wicked Boy” for either amped-up emotion or for sanitization of the facts. It reads like the successful and well-balanced offspring of a liaison between a crime novel and a scholarly paper.”— Florida Times Union

“A remarkable job of historical reconstruction…. In the time-honored tradition of Victorian crime stories, The Wicked Boy is a compelling mixture of the gruesome and the perfectly ordinary, a brew uniquely British…. a feat of genuine detective work.” —Dallas Morning News

 “A chilling look at an infamous child murderer, The Wicked Boy will have you losing sleep.”– Bustle

“In The Wicked Boy you’ll think you’re reading Dickens.”— NBC-2

“Summerscale’s command of the detail of Victorian life is impressive; her grasp of the nuances and characters of the individual personalities complete. “The Wicked Boy” is an extraordinary tale of black tragedy and hard-won redemption. Not to be missed by devotees of the Victorian Era.”— Daily Herald

“Ms. Summerscale has found a nifty literary specialty: resurrecting and reanimating, in detail as much forensic as it is novelistic, notorious true-life tales of the Victorian era… Enjoyable as an atmospheric tale of crime and punishment from a distant era written in lucid, limber prose, “The Wicked Boy” also implicitly raises questions that remain with us today… Ms. Summerscale’s easy mastery of what turns out to be a complicated, at times surprising narrative drives the book forward… Ms. Summerscale draws no firm psychological conclusions, but instead leaves the mystery of the boy and the man to our imaginations, where it pricks at us throughout the book.” –Charles Isherwood, New York Times

“Summerscale’s ambitious literary goal… is to position her close study of a specific crime within the broader context of the social and political climate in which it was committed. When the novelist P.D. James turned to true crime… [she] share[d] that expansive vision… Irresistible.”–Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Summerscale has taken her research to many levels of learning for the reader. It’s more than The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer—it’s a tale about change. It belongs on every reader’s bookshelf.”— New York Journal of Books  

 “Narrative nonfiction that reads like a novel.”— Omnivoracious Best History Books of July

“The Wicked Boy is an absorbing piece of true-crime investigation, and a surprising and satisfying tale of redemption….a treat for true-crime fans.” —Shelf Awareness 

“Summerscale specializes in revisiting scandals that reveal Victorians in the throes of their own morbid spells. She expertly probes the deep anxieties of a modernizing era. Even better, she brings rare biographical tenacity and sympathy to bear.” —The Atlantic

“As engrossing as a novel.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Summerscale bolsters her reputation as a superior historical true crime writer with this moving account of Victorian-age murder that is a whydunit rather than a whodunit….[Her] dogged research yields a tragedy that reads like a Dickens novel, including the remarkable payoff at the end.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“This well-written story is not so much a true-crime tale or murder mystery as an excellent sociological study of turn-of-the-20th-century England.” —Kirkus Reviews


Praise for Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher:
 
“A beautiful piece, written with great lucidity and respect for the reader, and with immaculate restraint. A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing.” – John Le Carre
 
“A pacy analysis of a true British murder case from 1860, the unravelling of which involved one of the earliest Scotland Yard detectives and inspired sensation novelists such as Dickens and Wilkie Collins … Absolutely riveting.” – Sarah Waters
 
“[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.” – Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Remarkable for the power of the storytelling… [this] is likely to be the last word on this tragic and mysterious crime.” - PD James
 
“I can’t think of another book which takes you so fast into the smells, tastes and atmosphere of that time.” - Doris Lessing

 
Praise for Kate Summerscale’s Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace:
 
“This is the golden age of narrative nonfiction, and Summerscale does it better than just about anyone.” – Laura Miller on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday”
 
“Summerscale unspools the Robinsons’ tale with flair in Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace, but it’s her social history of marriage that’s really riveting. Grade: A” – Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly
 
“[Kate Summerscale] prods, scrutinizes and examines, employing a real-life historical episode to shed light on Victorian morality and sensibilities.” – Andrea Wulf, New York Times Book Review