The Suspicions Of Mr. Whicher Sparknotes

In Kate Summerscale’s book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, we are introduced to a murder case at the Road Hill House in the late 19th century. The young child Saville Kent has been murdered and who murdered him is the question the entire town is interested in. All of the evidence we are introduced to points to Saville 's older, half sister, Constance Kent, as the murderer.

In the beginning of the book we are introduced to the Kent family and how they go about their daily lives: how the house is locked up at night, daily chores, and who has rooms and where the rooms are located. “...he [Samuel Kent] had checked that every door and window on the ground floor was locked and bolted against intruders, as he did each evening” (Summerscale, 2008,

Kent, the mother of Constance’s younger half siblings, never allowed Constance to have what she wanted. If Constance asked for a black dress, her new mother would give her a brown dress. This made Constance very angry and she would possibly want to get back at Mrs. Kent for treating her so poorly. Constance killing Saville, the “golden child” who told his mother everything, would help her get back at Mrs. Kent. On page twenty three of Summerscale’s book, Mrs. Dallimore said that Saville tells his mother everything. He could have possibly seen Constance doing something she should not have been doing and before he could tell Mrs. Kent, she killed

Whicher also takes note about Constance’s linen list. He notices that one of the night dresses is missing and this is brought up many times throughout the book. Constance could make it look like a clean nightdress is missing so if a bloody or dirty one that she wore during the night of the murder went missing it would not be missed. Constance had access to the laundry room by herself before it was sent out. She asked to see if her purse was in her pocket and this could allow her to see what bin her laundry was in. She then asks the maid to get her a glass of water and she is left in the room for a very short period of time. The maid states that Constance was in the same spot that she was before the maid left her, but Constance could still easily take the nightgown and put it up her dress after she asked for a glass of