The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, “The Murder at Road Hill House”

New episode out now! We watched the first installment of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, “The Murder at Road Hill House”. We cover how this is a pretty faithful adaptation of a horrifying true story, discuss the character of Mr. Whicher and his real history as “the prince of detectives”, and talk about the nature and purpose of justice within flawed systems that are just made up. We also wonder what kind of forensic sciences existed in the 1860s, discuss the influence of class on how the big-city detective interacts with the countryside village and household, and think that the Kent family dynamics are toxic and weird. Katy tries to remember Victorian police facts, Carrie gets infuriated with smarminess, Maddy reveals herself to be anti-monarchy, and Mack wins some big vocabulary points. We also talk about Victorian child labor laws, pitch some new TV shows, lament the state of 1800s medicine, and think this would have benefited from the addition of Henry Cavill’s Witcher. Listen now to hear more about studying dinosaurs, the lack of caveman mysteries, delivering bounties in Red Dead Redemption 2, and the perpetualness of boob sweat. Enjoy!

TW: Murder of a young child, fratricide, historical high rates of child mortality, infidelity, antiquated medical attitudes towards women

Show Notes/Sources: 

• My Favorite Murder Episode 299: London & England

• Wikipedia: Jack Whicher   Constance Kent  The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

• The book Carrie talked about was Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

• Short video about jury nullification:  The Law You Won't Be Told (be careful about investigating this topic too much as it can give lawyers and judges the right to deny your place on a jury)

• TikTok link to Brennan Lee Mulligan telling the story Mack mentioned