I've had this book on my shelf for a while now and given the other Ripper novel I read prior to this one, I figured why not keep the theme going? The author is the same who writes the Swagger series so this is a bit different for him, apparently...at least that's what I was told by an Instagram commenter. While I've never read any of his works prior to this, it made me a fan. I also realized I had been reading a ton of either young adult or contemporary fiction because I had to kick my brain back on with the language in this one. None of which is a bad thing, it is just a different writing style than what I've been reading lately.
I LOVED this book. It's written in the form of diary entries from Jack the Ripper and as Memoirs from a journalist who came to acquire the diary and has put all of it together to form this book. Now, sometimes that style can be tedious but Hunter keeps the pace moving along quite well. He doesn't spend hours with one over the other, which is great because a couple of times, the diary entries from Jack almost made my skin crawl...almost. It takes a lot to get me to shudder...I've seen autopsies and crime scene photos after all...but this one, because of just the warped psyche of Jack made me go Holy Shit a couple of times. It was so real. It was so real that I could actually believe, given his crimes and the mutilation of the women, that this could legit be the diary of Jack the Ripper so for that, well done Mr. Hunter.
Like most Ripper novels, the unknown allows for liberties to be taken as to who Jack was and what his/hers/their motives were. I suppose now I should tell you *SPOILER ALERT*. In this version of a Ripper theory, a writer for the Star used to write on musical performances but he gets a chance to make a change but in doing so he must also change his name, and thus Jeb is born. Jeb chooses this name because his sister could never say his name which was actually his initials, G.B. Jeb's memoirs are part of the story and he gets to tell his side of the story. I often wondered through part of the book if Jeb was also the Ripper...no he didn't seem to fit but hey...would've been a great plot twist. Jeb gets his own plot twist though that made me go SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! So...Jeb gets the break and makes a name for himself so he becomes the first reporter on the scene to the Ripper's crimes and he is the only reporter allowed to actually see the bodies up close and personal. He writes the stories which in turn sensationalizes the Ripper. He, along with an American reporter, come up with the Ripper letter. In this particular novel, it was all made up by the media because there had been a lull in newspaper sells when the Ripper got quiet for a bit. They needed to sell papers so they made up the letter. Rather than pissing off the real Jack, he's actually quite impressed.
Around the time Jeb gets his break, he's invited to the boss' house for a party where he meets Thomas Dare...a professor who is quite eccentric and has his own thoughts on a Utopian society. One in which language is the basis. He theorizes that we should all speak the same language and live the same, thereby being uniform. It's a weird theory but hey...go with what you feel. He's also outrageous and Jeb instantly likes him. Dare, however, knows that Jeb is the man standing in front of him. He knows, based on the language, that the man who used to write the performance pieces is also the one writing of Jack's crimes. Okay...I can believe that. It's hard to switch up writing styles and patterns. It isn't until Jack leaves his message on the brick wall about JUWES that Dare and Jeb's relationship changes. Dare, being the linguistic mastermind, thinks Jack is dyslexic. Jeb and Dare begin working on a profile of who Jack could really be and they come up with a military man who is dyslexic and had been in a certain area during the Crimean War and with this profile they come up with 3 suspects. They begin sleuthing on their own to follow the men to see if any of them could be Jack. They initially suspect a horn dog of a man but eventually it turns out not to be him. Their suspicion then shifts to their final suspect, Colonel Woodruff. He honestly fits the bill...served in the suspected area in the Crimean War, has dyslexia, is unassuming, and spends a bit of time in Whitechapel. Jeb and Dare believe they've found their man and they set out to make him pay. Confrontation ensues and they believe they have killed the Ripper. It isn't until the next day that Jeb is confronted by a man on the street holding a knife to his gut and that man turns out to be Woodruff.
It turns out Woodruff has all of the answers. Jack the Ripper is none other than Thomas Dare! Honestly, I had suspected him for a time. Woodruff and Dare knew one another, even roomed together at one time so obviously Dare would be able to develop a profile to pin the murders on Woodruff. He knew so much about the man. Dare, during his twisted time, had taken a woman and tried to make her into the perfect woman for himself, regardless of what it did to her. Woodruff, not liking what Dare was doing to her, offered her a way out and she took it. Dare considered this the ultimate betrayal and ended up actually killing her but Woodruff left before he could kill him. So, Dare set up a way to extravagantly exact revenge by pinning a murder on him. Which is ultimately what happened. However, Jeb and Woodruff work together to take Dare down. And they do. Jeb confronts Dare and he admits to the murders. Before he can kill Jeb, Woodruff shows up and shoots him. It was all very much more climactic but that's what happened in a nutshell. Jack/Dare is dead so that's why the murders stopped, but I think in his plot to get revenge, Dare would have continued to do what was necessary until Woodruff ended up hanging for murder. The dude was wickedly twisted, guys. He just puts off a weird vibe to me from the beginning...both as Dare and as Jack.
I really liked this little twist on who Jack was and what his motives were. It was a new take on things and given how many theories there are, it's often hard to make an original fictionalized Jack story. I would recommend this if you're an avid Jack the Ripper fan!
Oh and Jeb's plot twist...turns out he is none other than George Bernard Shaw. 😃
No comments:
Post a Comment