The Whitechapel Horrors

Review: The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B. Hanna - as the title suggests - pits Holmes & Watson against Jack the Ripper. It's not a new idea, and there isn't a new identification for the murderer. (Mr Hanna chooses a real person whom most serious criminologists have dismissed; he gets around the historical difficulties with great ingenuity.)

The literary and the factual aspects of the book are very well researched, as the extensive footnotes attest. Unusually, the story is told in the third person, so the reader isn't distracted by any failure to capture the Watsonian voice. The Whitechapel Horrors makes for a gripping read; it's certainly the best novelistic attempt yet to match Holmes and the Ripper.

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson, [District Messenger 166, 1996]