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The Peepshow

The Murders at 10 Rillington Place

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The Peepshow

By: Kate Summerscale
Narrated by: Nicola Walker
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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale, read by the Olivier Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated actress Nicola Walker.

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER AND THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER...

‘Once more, Kate Summerscale shatters our preconceptions of a classic crime’ Val McDermid

London, 1953. Police discover the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy terrace house in Notting Hill. On searching the building, they find another body beneath the floorboards, then an array of human bones in the garden. But they have already investigated a double murder at 10 Rillington Place, three years ago, and the killer was hanged. Did they get the wrong man?

A nationwide manhunt is launched for the tenant of the ground-floor flat, a softly spoken former policeman named Reg Christie. Star reporter Harry Procter chases after the scoop. Celebrated crime writer Fryn Tennyson Jesse begs to be assigned to the case. The story becomes an instant sensation, and with the relentless rise of the tabloid press the public watches on like never before. Who is Christie? Why did he choose to kill women, and to keep their bodies near him? As Harry and Fryn start to learn the full horror of what went on at Rillington Place, they realise that Christie might also have engineered a terrible miscarriage of justice in plain sight.

In this riveting true story, Kate Summerscale mines the archives to uncover the lives of Christie’s victims, the tabloid frenzy that their deaths inspired, and the truth about what happened inside the house.

'A gripping account of murder, misogyny and spectatorship' Sarah Waters, author of Fingersmith

'A forensic reappraisal of a grimy episode in postwar British history . . . Shocking, impeccably researched, lucidly written and always utterly compelling' Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project

'The queen of true crime' Laura Thompson, author of Take Six Girls

©2024 Kate Summerscale (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Great Britain Journalists, Editors & Publishers Judicial Systems Murder True Crime Exciting Scary
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Critic reviews

'A crystalline, compelling account of a notorious crime ... Seamlessly blends the pleasures of a good novel with the enlightenment of masterly reportage. A gem' (Dominic Nolan, author of VINE STREET)

What listeners say about The Peepshow

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Interesting Social History

This was exactly what I hoped for.. v much not a salacious retelling of an extremely unpleasant set of murders but rather the social history of the era in which the crimes took place and the effects of class, race, gender and media portrayal on them.

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An old crime told from different perspectives.

Christie and Rillington Place are famous within the annuls of criminal history and is a story often told but this book looks at him from different angles. It’s more of a social commentary of the forties and fifties within a post war Britain and her people. The role females, alongside the media, especially journalism, played. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot, not necessarily about Christie, but rather London and the criminal system, Timothy Evans, the great smog and the treatment of people of colour who were beginning to arrive from the Caribbean. It’s a solid listen.

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narration

A great historical account of an infamous murder. Well worth a listen. Nicola Walker gives a great performance.

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A brilliantly researched book. Totally fascinating!

Nicola Walker’s mesmerising and involving narration and Kate Summerscale’s incredible research and atmospheric writing take the reader back to the smoggy and grimy hinterland of post war London. I thought I knew the 10 Rillington Place story well, but this brilliant book is a tour de force setting the story in the context of the social norms of the early 1950’s. Had me engrossed from the first line. A book worthy of more than one Audible credit!

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Appalling book , dont waste you credit.

Sounds like it has been written to fill pages. Worst book I have ever heard or read got to chapter three and glad to stop.

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riveting

Kate Summerscale's exhaustive research and engaging style means a fascinating episode in modern history is presented coherently and respectfully. Nicola Walker does a great job too.

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JAW DROPPING LISTEN

NOTHING TO DISLIKE

IT MADE YOU THINK, RE:THINK
OPENED YOUR EYES WIDER,
MADE YOUR BRAIN WORK OVERTIME, N THINK AGAIN.

MY SYMPATHY N MY HEART GOES OUT TO ALL WHO WERE EFFECTED BY THESE CRIMES.

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Exceptional study of a crime

This story has been told many times before as a crime but not as a crafted study of the society it took place in.

Tremendous skill of the author in recreating to perfection not only the crime but also the grim grey post war era of the norm of casual racism, judgemental snobbery, judicial arrogance and the acceptance of poverty.

A very good read/listen.





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Enjoyable and deep

My second Summerscale. I really respect her command of the material and the narrative and I recommend this. I was really surprised by how wooden Walker's narration was. Slow too. I had to ramp it up to 1.2, which is rare for me.

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I thought I knew this true serial murder story..

The investigative research done for this book was commendable. I watched the Attenborough film as a kid and it still frightens me even now. Sadly I had no clue about all the other victims and their families still suffering plus the cover ups going on back then along with the vile prejudices of those day. What a disgusting world we live in.

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