The Wicked Boy
The Mystery Of A Victorian Child Murderer
Book - 2016
Early in the morning of Monday 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his twelve-year-old brother Nattie set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord's. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbours, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next ten days Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents' valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate from the building. When the police were finally called to investigate, the discovery they made sent the press into a frenzy of horror and alarm, and Robert and Nattie were swept up in a criminal trial that echoed the outrageous plots of the 'penny dreadful' novels that Robert loved to read.
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Publisher:
New York :, Penguin Press,, [2016]
ISBN:
9781594205781
Characteristics:
378 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
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Add a CommentTHIS STORY HAD EVERYTHING! It’s narrative nonfiction but reads like a Dickensian novel. The crime is fascinating itself but I quickly became absorbed in the story about Robert Coombes (On a side note, I could read a whole book on just Broadmoor alone) and the conclusion had me in tears!
Based on extensive research into a huge range of contemporary resources, the author has brought to life the lives, times, customs, prejudices, social and economic conditions and much more of a paricular time in English history to create an accurate and highly readable account of what was a huge scandal. Why did a thirteen year old boy kill his mother ? Summerscale has carefully, respectfully told Robert Coombs story and given the reader a sensitive insight into another time.
This is the first Kate Summerscale book I have read but, immediately upon completing The Wicked Boy, I requested her other true crime historical novels. Her skill as a journalist shines through her writing: concise, clear but with intrigue and suspense usually found in a good mystery novel. The crime was interesting enough but her background research was compelling: the Victorian justice system, Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, and Anzac troops in Gallipoli. Her “Wicked Boy” was a complex character and, even with all her discoveries, a lingering mystery in himself. First Rate book.
This is an interesting biography of Robert Coombes, a working class lad from the East End, who killed his mother in 1895 and went on to live a rather surprising life. It is set at the time of early studies of criminality and mental illness and explores such issues as the impact of "penny dreadfuls" on the youth of the day. The book is well-researched, but Summerscale used everything she unearthed, sometimes of questionable relevance.
"The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer" by Kate Summerscale is the best non-fiction book I've read in the past year. I'm impressed by the sleuthing and searching Summerscale has done to tell a complete story. It is a mystery and like a really good mystery the ending is deeply satisfying.
Set in 1895 London, this is a true crime retelling of a matricide committed by a young boy, the resulting trial and the aftermath. This is skilled non-fiction writing that manages to combine both tension and resolution, while remaining true to its sources. For my full review, see
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/the-wicked-boy-the-mystery-of-a-victorian-child-murderer-by-kate-summerscale/