The Wicked Boy

De: Kate Summerscale

Narrado por: Jot Davies

Early in the morning of Monday, 8 July 1895, 13-year-old Robert Coombes and his 12-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 10 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.

In The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale has uncovered a fascinating true story of murder and morality. It is not just a meticulous examination of a shocking Victorian case but also a compelling account of its aftermath and of man's capacity to overcome the past.

©2016 Kate Summerscale (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A beautiful piece, written with great lucidity and respect for the listener, and with immaculate restraint. A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing." (John le Carre)
"Summerscale has constructed nothing less than a masterpiece.... My shelves are stacked with books about crime, but none more satisfying than this." (Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday)

Wow!

Although this book might broadly be classified as 'true crime', it is so much more. It is the intriguing story of a life but it is also a social history. It is both tragic and inspirational, but to say more would necessarily include spoilers which would be particularly ruinous in this case because the outcome is so unexpected. The book is beautifully and sympathetically written, and I became more deeply fascinated as the story unfolded. The best is at the end, a very moving conclusion to a most unusual story. As for the narration, I was unsure of Jot Davies' style to start with, but very quickly became a fan - his timing is spot-on, he captures changing moods, and he is superb with accents and voices and foreign words - I'm keen to hear more from him.