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The Wicked Boy
- Narrated by: Jot Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
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The Wicked Boy
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Publisher's Summary
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.
Critic Reviews
"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)
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What listeners say about The Wicked Boy
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- MumOfThree
- 30-03-2017
Interesting story, badly presented....
I agree with other reviewers, the narrator is totally wrong for this kind of story.
The story itself is very interesting, and Kate sure does her research... but maybe a bit too much little detail... a few times I found myself wishing I had the actual book so I could flick past some of it. But over all a thorough and interesting history of the times and locations.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ^.^
- 10-10-2017
Chilling, innocent, intelligent
An amazing story, inteligently and seamlessly pieced together from a lifetime of evidence, to reveal a breathtaking telling of a boy that lived an extraordinary life of mental and physical struggle.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maggie
- 20-07-2016
Excellent read
So much history in the book as well as telling the story of this man.Well worth listening too
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- SIMON HILL
- 13-01-2017
Narrator doesn't match the story
I'm fascinated by historical true crime and this story might not otherwise disappoint ....except the narrator doesn't match, combined as it is between a reading of a child's bedside story and commentating cricket. I couldn't sustain the story due to the strange and upbeat emphasis in reading.
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