The Peepshow is the 3rd Kate Summerscale book I’ve read, and it is outstanding. Just like The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher and The Wicked Boy, Summerscale translates a massive amount of research into an incredibly readable story.
The Peepshow is about John Reginald (Reg) Christie and his trial for a series of murders carried out at 10 Rillington Place, in a working-class area of London, in the 1940s and early 1950s. It’s a story that holds perennial fascination for true crime aficionados, not least because at the heart of it lies a potential miscarriage of justice. It’s still not known whether two of the murders — of Beryl Evans and her infant child Geraldine — were committed by Christie or by Tim Evans, Beryl’s husband. Tim Evans was executed in 1950 for Beryl’s murder. Christie murdered at least 8 people, and confessed to having committed more.
“… a grotesque cartoon of the old-fashioned Englishman. Like many of his class and generation, [Christie] had seemed to adhere to a rigid moral code: he was emotionally reserved, courteous, disapproving of immigrants, prostitutes, pubs and strong liquor, devoted to his pets and his garden, deferential to his social betters, admiring of the police and the army.”
It’s a multilayered book that not only delves into the murders but also addresses a wide range of themes such as the criminal legal system, populist journalism, crime voyeurism, prostitution, poverty, domestic abuse, racism and various forms of social prejudice. The events are told largely from the perspective of Harry Proctor, chief reporter for a sensationalist newspaper, the Sunday Pictorialist.
Summerscale’s writing style has been described (in The Guardian) as “dispassionate” and even “doggedly unscintillating”. I’m not sure they meant it as a compliment, but it’s what I love about Summerscale; she could write a book about taking the bins out and turn it into a gripping story. It’s like lounging on a comfortable sofa with a friend as they reveal dark secrets in a banal tone over tea and biscuits.
It is this very gravitas that illuminates this book. Just as Christie’s crimes of vicious sexual predation, rape and murder are exposed from behind his ordinary appearance and conservative behaviour, so too does a depth of meticulously researched, vivid and even gory detail emerge from Summerscale’s sober narration.
As in her other books, Summerscale frequently sidetracks into minute details about the many people involved. In so doing, she constructs a vivid picture of the victims, the era and setting. She also portrays the victims with insight and empathy, and highlights the impact of each victim’s death on the families who mourned them.
Thanks to Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing and the author for the advance review copy of this book. All of my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, no matter how I acquire the book.
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