The Peepshow (10 Rillington Place) by Kate Summerscale

I was very happy to pick up a copy of The Peepshow The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale from Sainsbury’s recently. I’ve been reading true crime books on and off since I was a teenager. When I was a young adult, true crime was literally all I read and I still like it now – even if it is a case I’ve read about before.

The Peepshow was published in hardback in 2024 and in paperback recently. It is another look at the notorious murders at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill in London in 1953. For anyone who doesn’t know about the case – in 1949, a young man called Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his baby daughter, Geraldine. His wife, Beryl, was also murdered, but at the time a person could only be convicted for one murder. Evans blamed his downstairs neighbour, Reginald Christie. In 1953, four bodies, including his wife Ethel, were found in Reg Christie’s home on the ground floor of 10 Rillington Place.

Were there two murderers at 10 Rillington Place or did Tim Evans hang for a crime he didn’t commit?

In The Peepshow, Kate Summerscale pieces together all the evidence in the Christie and Evans cases again. The book closely follows two very different journalists who worked on the case in the 1950s. Harry Procter was a celebrated crime reporter for a popular Sunday newspaper of the time called The Pictorial. His methods to get his sensational stories weren’t always above board. Fryn Tennyson Jesse was a woman who had written a number of true crime books in the past. In old age and going blind, she was determined to get justice for Evans and tell the story.

The Peepshow gives us more insight into the victims (it reminds me of The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, which is about the victims of Jack the Ripper) and into the misogyny and racism of time. Prostitutes, poor people and black people were all considered the lowest of the low. It paints a very depressing picture of post-war Britain, with people living in extreme poverty.

If you are interested in true crime or history, I can’t recommend The Peepshow highly enough. There is nothing sordid about it, it is just a very interesting read.

I didn’t realise, but Kate Summerscale also wrote The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I read many years ago. Mr Whicher is another piecing together of a historical true life murder mystery and it is a very good read!

I’ve read two other books on the Christie and Evans cases – 10 Rillington Place by Ludovic Kennedy, which is generally considered to be the definitive narrative on the cases, and The Two Killers of Rillington Place by John Eddowes.