Kate Summerscale

Kate Summerscale is a British author and journalist whose non-fiction books combine rigorous historical research with narrative skill to produce some of the most compelling true crime and social history writing of the past two decades. Summerscale studied English at the University of Oxford and worked as a journalist for The Daily Telegraph and other publications before turning to book-length non-fiction. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008) was a landmark work — a reconstruction of the 1860 Road Hill House murder case that became a number one Sunday Times bestseller and won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The book brilliantly interweaves a gripping murder mystery with an exploration of the birth of detective fiction and the Victorian obsession with privacy and domesticity. The Wicked Boy, Mrs Robinson's Disgrace, and The Haunting of Alma Fielding continue her exploration of Victorian and Edwardian cases that illuminate broader social themes. The Book of Phobias and Manias is a fascinating A-to-Z of human fears and obsessions, tracing their histories and the psychology behind them. Summerscale writes with the narrative drive of a crime novelist and the meticulous sourcing of a historian. Her gift is finding stories that are both compelling in their own right and revealing about the societies that produced them. The audiobook editions of Summerscale's books are gripping and enlightening. Her books and audiobooks are essential for fans of true crime, social history, and non-fiction that reads like the best fiction.