Read for the True Crime category of Nonfiction Reader Challenge, a genre that I usually don't gravitate to. I appreciated that Summerscale stayed with the facts for the most part, though she did slip in a certain amount of speculation. It's hard not to, as the historical record does not have any explanation for why this murder was actually committed. It is most intriguing that the murderer ended up giving refuge to another boy who was suffering domestic abuse, and it's plausible that he did so in empathy out of his own experience. But we just can't know what really happened, and that is a bit frustrating.

Summerscale rounds out the story with information about the time and place that is often quite interesting, but sometimes goes a bit far off topic - seems like stretching to fill pages.