The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

This book has been on my reading list for a few months, so I was really excited when I found it for $3.99 at Borders. It combines two things I love: murder mysteries and historical non-fiction. Whoo.

The murder mystery was intriguing. A savage killing of a young child in Victorian England and everyone in the house was a suspect. Was it a sinister stranger or, as Detective Whicher believed, the calculated actions of an angry family member or servant. Detective Whicher believed that he knew who committed the crime but had no physical proof. Unlike modern whodunnits (and shows like Law & Order) the final solution to the case (which came to light five years after the crime via confession) wasn't a total shocker. If you want a total spoiler, you can read about the case here.

The timing of the events (1860) allowed for Summerscale to explore the evolution of the modern detective and discuss this case's influence on the writers of the day (including Dickens) and the development of detective fiction.

I found this book to be less about the murder mystery than about the evolving methods of detection in the late 1800s and the effect that these efforts had on the general public and literature. It was an interesting read but didn't really draw me in or satisfy me like other historical non-fiction mysteries have (Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City comes to mind).

Short stories

I just finished two compilations of short stories, read at the same time, by two of my most favorite authors ever: Roald Dahl and Dave Eggers.

When I think of Roald Dahl, I don't usually think "nasty and wicked" but these are the words used to describe the mind, and adult short stories, of the beloved children's author (in The Best of Roald Dahl). It was a pretty apt description. The short stories were deliciously dark, witty and just plain odd. My absolute favorite was entitled "Genesis and Catastrophe" and was written in 1959. It is the story of Hitler's birth (unknown to the reader in the beginning) that is chilling in its foreshadowing of tragedy and the unimaginable twists and turns of life.

How We Are Hungry was the only book of Dave Eggers' that I had yet to read. Despite what you might think from this post, I am not a big fan of short stories. Sometimes I get too involved and interested in what I am reading and it is over too quickly. I am always compelled by Dave Eggers' ability to tell a beautiful story. I was not entirely disappointed with the stories in this collection but sometimes longed for more. As always, I was impressed by the author's ability to create vivid characters and landscapes with simple and evocative language. I enjoyed seeing the resurrection of two lovely characters from my favorite Eggers book, You Shall Know Our Velocity! I also thought some of the shortest pieces (some only one and a half pagers) were the most charming. The titles of the stories were lovely too: "Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance", "Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone" and "About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her" were some favorites.

My favorite passage was from "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly": "When Rita walked past them she tried to smile faintly, without looking too friendly, or rich, or sexy, or happy, or vulnerable, or guilty, or proud, or contented, or health, or interested - she did not want them to think she was any of those things. She walked by almost cross-eyed with casual concentration."

For readers wanting to get into Dave Eggers, I will still recommend You Shall Know Our Velocity! or What Is the What (tied for my favorites).