Books by Kate Summerscale
“This is another horrifying tale, this time of a serial killer leading a seemingly ordinary life in a terraced house in West London. As in her other books, what Summerscale does so well is bring to life the era in which the events are happening, in this case the 1950s. The lives of the murdered women, of the tabloid journalist who covers the crimes, of the perpetrator and his wife, of the hapless neighbour who is executed by mistake, all feel very real.” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024
Sophie Roell, Journalist
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
by Kate Summerscale
🏆 Winner of the 2008 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
“This is a completely gripping book that looks at a notorious Victorian murder case, often referred to as the Road Hill House case, involving the murder of the young boy, apparently taken from his bed, one night in 1860. Summerscale manages to balance the psychological dynamics of living in a house with many secrets and tensions in the Kent family and the mechanics of the crime solving plot, exactly where are the different members of the household at critical moments. So the story zips along, drawing out the central mystery, without sacrificing psychological depth or historical context.” Read more...
Cara Robertson, Lawyer
The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story
by Kate Summerscale
***Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction***
This is the story of Alma Fielding, a woman who in the 1930s said her house had been taken over by a poltergeist—and the Hungarian ghosthunter, Nandor Fodor, who tried to understand what it all meant. A gripping read.
Interviews where books by Kate Summerscale were recommended
The best books on True Crime, recommended by Cara Robertson
Why do women kill? What does violence tell us about human nature? How do the methods of the criminal justice system speak to an era? Cara Robertson—a lawyer, author and expert on the famous Lizzie Borden case—picks five true crime books that deal in murder, individual psychology, public trials and justice.
The Best True Crime Books, recommended by David Grann
True crime books can be all too easily chalked up as a genre of grisly murders and cheap, voyeuristic thrills—but to do so would be to overlook compelling evidence to the contrary. David Grann, whose true crime book revisits long-forgotten, or concealed, crimes in the Osage community of Oklahoma, raises the bar with examples of true crime books rich in historical discovery, literary merit and the kind of political inquiry these murky times are calling for.
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1
Patriot: A Memoir
by Alexei Navalny -
2
Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia
by Stephanie Baker -
3
Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich
by Richard J. Evans -
4
The Golden Road
by William Dalrymple -
5
The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place
by Kate Summerscale
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the memoir of the brave politician who opposed Putin, to how the culture of ancient and early medieval India transformed the world, from a book about the people who surrounded Hitler, to a serial killer in 1950s London, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, introduces some of her favourite nonfiction books published in the last three months.
