KATE SUMMERSCALE THE Suspicions of Mr Whicher ****

Another really good book - this time non-fiction.

It's the true story of the notorious 1860 murder of a three-year-old boy - snatched from his bed in a smart country-house, and stuffed down an outside privy.

The Mr Whicher of the title is one of the first generation of Scotland Yard detectives. He's sent to investigate the case when the local police get stuck.

At one level it's a classic country-house murder, which must have been committed by someone in the household, and it works as a whodunit. But it's also a fascinating look at Victorian society and the way the murder and its investigation touched a nerve. At the time it provoked something close to national hysteria at the thought of what might be going on behind closed and respectable doors.