1 comments about Prince Jack.

1. There are a lot of people who still believe that Queen Victoria's grandson ("Eddy," the Duke of Clarence) was Jack the Ripper. They may have read about that theory in this book. However, much of the "support" this book presents for the theory is hand-waving. There are huge discrepancies -- for example, "Eddy" wasn't in town for most of the murders.

   I read this book in high school for a history book report project. I think one reason I got a good grade on the report was because I pointed out that the author tended to ignore or brush aside facts that didn't fit his theory. By the way, I thought of giving this book two stars because it read quickly and because it was the first Ripper book I read. However, the facts were so misused that I cannot do so. If this had been published as a novel, I would have rated it much higher because it was so interesting. As nonfiction, it doesn't work.

   If you read this Ripper book and don't read any of the better books, you are depriving yourself. There are much better resources out there. At the very least, visit the casebook dot org site. The realistic Ripper theories aren't as interesting as theories like this one, but at least they make sense.

No comments about Jack The Ripper.

No comments about Jack The Ripper - The Pocket Essential Guide.

No comments about Shadow of the Ripper.

1 comments about The Cases That Haunt Us From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds Light on the .....

1. A true crime buff, I enjoyed this cross-section of cases, as presented by a longtime detective. The cases, which include Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, Lizzie Borden, and JonBenet Ramsey, are presented in a straightforward, factual manner, which nonetheless manages to give readers a sense of understanding about the victims -- and the killers, too.
   
   Even if you aren't really into true crime, I'd recommend picking up this book -- it's important to know about some of the most well-known crimes in history, which in turn shaped popular culture and society.

5 comments about The Lodger (Oxford Popular Fiction).

1. I loved this book. It was not the horror story that I was expecting, but more of the classic tale of suspense and spine tingling situations. If you need a lot of "blood and guts", this is not the book for you. If you want a great book to read, cozied up the the fire with a cup of tea, prepare to enjoy!



2. This is the suspenseful best-seller by Hillaire Belloc's sister that inspired Hitchcock's first talkie and the 1940s-era remake that won its star, Laird Cregar, an Oscar. The motivation of the murderess lodger's landlady may be hard for moderns to swallow. Her crisis comes from, on the one hand, guessing that her lodger is a serial killer, and, on the other, needing his rent money as well as harboring the working-class Victorian's deeply ingrained aversing to informing to the coppers -- this even though a young detective is a constant visitor and supportive friend. This conflict is never resolved. By accident only are the landlady and her husband saved from "The Avenger." Despite the protagonists' moral cowardice, the deus ex machina ending and considerable over-writing, this is a gripping, atmospheric page-turner, redolent with fine detail of every-day life in the London of the period. Their character warts don't prevent Mr. and Mrs. Bunting from being sympathetic. Indeed, those flaws help the book rise above its genre.



3. It is a GREAT book and will go on my 'special' bookshelf of superior things. "The Lodger" is written,1900-ish, by Marie Belloc Lowndes, who is the sister of vaguely famous Hillaire Billoc. I had assumed from the name Hillaire that he was some French writer I had missed, but he turned out to be just a right wing English politician who thought women shouldn't get the vote, even though, obviously, his sister could write rings around him. Anyway, the plot is this: (Don't read this is you fear exposure to a few plot details)
   
   Robert and Ellen Bunting were an ex butler and his wife, a lady's maid who after a business failing had fallen on very hard times, and were reduced to such straights that the husband's purchase of a penny newspaper to read about the details of the horrendous, "Avenger" (aka Jack The Ripper), serial killings in London nearly precipitated an argument between them, despite the fact that they were a very nice couple who cared for each other in their restrained English way. At the moment of their greatest despair, their prayers are answered as a 'gentleman' comes knocking in answer to the sign in their window of 'rooms to let'.
   
   ""On the top of the three steps which led up to the door, there stood
   the long, lanky figure of a man, clad in an Inverness cape and an
   old-fashioned top hat. He waited for a few seconds blinking at her,
   perhaps dazzled by the light of the gas in the passage. Mrs.
   Bunting's trained perception told her at once that this man, odd as
   he looked, was a gentleman, belonging by birth to the class with
   whom her former employment had brought her in contact.
   
   "Is it not a fact that you let lodgings?" he asked, and there was
   something shrill, unbalanced, hesitating, in his voice.
   
   "Yes, sir," she said uncertainly--it was a long, long time since
   anyone had come after their lodgings, anyone, that is, that they
   could think of taking into their respectable house.
   
   Instinctively she stepped a little to one side, and the stranger
   walked past her, and so into the hall.
   
   And then, for the first time, Mrs. Bunting noticed that he held a
   narrow bag in his left hand. It was quite a new bag, made of strong
   brown leather.
   
   "I am looking for some quiet rooms," he said; then he repeated the
   words, "quiet rooms," in a dreamy, absent way, and as he uttered
   them he looked nervously round him.
   
   Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully
   furnished, and was very clean.
   
   There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary
   feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which
   matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
   
   A very superior lodging-house this, and evidently a superior
   lodging-house keeper.
   
   "You'd find my rooms quite quiet, sir," she said gently. "And just
   now I have four to let. The house is empty, save for my husband
   and me, sir."
   
   Mrs. Bunting spoke in a civil, passionless voice. It seemed too
   good to be true, this sudden coming of a possible lodger, and of a
   lodger who spoke in the pleasant, courteous way and voice which
   recalled to the poor woman her happy, far-off days of youth and
   of security.
   
   "That sounds very suitable," he said. "Four rooms? Well, perhaps
   I ought only to take two rooms, but, still, I should like to see
   all four before I make my choice."
   
   How fortunate, how very fortunate it was that Bunting had lit the
   gas! But for that circumstance this gentleman would have passed
   them by.
   
   She turned towards the staircase, quite forgetting in her agitation
   that the front door was still open; and it was the stranger whom
   she already in her mind described as "the lodger," who turned and
   rather quickly walked down the passage and shut it.
   
   "Oh, thank you, sir!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry you should have
   had the trouble."
   
   For a moment their eyes met. "It's not safe to leave a front door
   open in London," he said, rather sharply. "I hope you do not often
   do that. It would be so easy for anyone to slip in.""
   
   Ellen Bunting becomes even more sure the shy new lodger is a gentleman because his manners are so odd. He arrives with no luggage but a brown leather bag he clutches continually. Ellen is reassured because from her years of service in Regent's Park households, she knows peculiarity of behavior is a sign of good breeding. The lodger who's name is Mr. Sleuth, borrows a bible and pays the months rent in advance. He's a vegetarian, which shocks the conservative Bunting's, but they cook prepare his eggs and cheese with as good a face as they can't put on it. Mr. Sleuth is so glad there is a sink and gas stove in his room on which to conduct his 'scientific experiments'. He rents the entire two floors above the couples apartment. The couple are able to repay a loan they got from a young policeman who has romantic intentions toward Mr. Bunting's daughter Daisy from a first marriage, who lives with a rich aunt. The tired policeman visits often, and Mrs. Bunting gives him tea as he tells of the failure or success of the police in their search for the man who is committing horrendous crimes which have enthralled all wintery London. The murders start to occur closer and closer to the couples home, as the gentle Mr. Sleuth sits upstairs during the daytime reading aloud all the sections of the bible which are most unflattering to women. Ellen, polishing the banisters, listens to his voice. At night he goes out in rubber soled shoes. Quickly, Ellen begins to suspect her lodger is a notorious murderer, but she doesn't turn him in because, understandably, he stands between them and starvation. Not to mention the fact that she's become oddly attached to him. He's such a gentle gentleman.
   
   What a rare great book! It's so well written. Wonderful, thoughtful characters. I restrain myself from giving away the end, although of course, as is my way, I read the last chapter first... sigh. A book this good is like being in love.
   
   Now I'm reading "Castle In The Carpathians" by Jules Verne. It's not very scary though. His bats, I understand, all turn out to be mechanical. I must find more ghost stories to read, it's such a dark and rainy summer. (I haven't finished Tristam Shandy yet, but am plugging along in the odd hour.)



4. On a cold, blustery, foggy winter in late 19th century London, multiple murders of woman leave the police stymied. The interesting story Lowndes portrays is set around a married couple strapped for money who rent out their upper story to an eccentric young man (the lodger). The interactions occur mostly between the lodger and the wife; she turns out to be an apologist for him. The couples suspicions of their lodger slowly rise after reading the death tally in the paper and through police friends.
   
   Lowndes bases her book on research through investigative articles and interviews; the rest is left to conjecture. The English dialect lends a more realistic feel. Sorry to disappoint; if you were looking for blood and gore........its not here. Well written, will keep you glued. Jack the Ripper was never captured.
   
   Wish you well
   Scott



5. This is a really great old novel. It's somewhat reminicent of Jack the Ripper, and keeps you in suspense until the end. It wasn't quite as chilling as I had heard through reviews, and it left quite a few questions unanswered, such as: how exactly were the girls killed? and what were Mr. Sleuth's experiments?; but it is a great thriller.

5 comments about The Many Faces of Jack the Ripper.

1. I liked the photos, some of the murder sites no longer exist today, so it was neat to see the sites of the murders. The text was interesting, but the high point of this book for me was the photographs.



2. For a book that touted the fact it would be full of interesting pictures, the promised photos weren't that prominent! Don't get me wrong--there are a lot of interesting images--but I expected them to be larger, with more direct commentary ... a focus on the images, the photos, and their connection to the history.

   Instead, the book reads like a typical JtR book, with a lot more illustrations. Trow makes a few good points, though, and the last chapter is really, really interesting. Worth reading, but don't expect too much on the picture front.




3. Informative with a lot of interesting pictures, This is the first book for me about "Jack the Ripper" and I will really recommend this book. Great and easy reading,



4. Informative with a lot of interesting pictures,



5. Jack the Ripper continues to taunt us over 100 years after his murder spree. Theories come and go, but if you're looking for THE reference book on the Ripper, order Philip Sudgens book.

No comments about The Complete Jack the Ripper.

No comments about Jack the Ripper.

5 comments about Sojourn (Time Rovers - Book 1).

1. Jana G. Oliver's unique time travel novel, Sojourn is the adventure story of Jacynda Lassiter, a Time Rover sent on a mission to London in the year of 1888 to prevent a missing 'tourist' from disturbing and changing history. Featuring a deftly intertwining plot populated mysterious and dangerous shape-shifters, Irish anarchists edging closer to attacks on the Crown, and the murderous Jack The Ripper, Sojourn is a riveting tale of Lassiter's persistent struggle to save the time line necessary for the continued existence her own world of 2057, or perish in her failure to protect it. An original and well crafted story, Sojourn is very highly recommended reading for Sci-Fi buffs and clearly document Jana G. Oliver as a gifted storyteller and a master of the genre.



2. Once you get involved in this time travel story, you will have a difficult time putting it down. Ms. Oliver's strengths are plotting, characterization, and dialogue. Perhaps even more important is the element of humor that's sprinkled throughout. In addition, Victorian England (and the Jack the Ripper case) have been tremendously researched. It all adds up to a delicious read. The best news is that this book is the first in a series!



3. I liked this book a lot, but I don't think it's a 5-star novel. The Whitechapel portions of it are great, and from the little I know of the Ripper murders and the period, the author got it right. I also agree with an earlier review that says one of the author's strengths is dialogue. I agree 100 percent. Conversation is very natural here, one of the most natural I've read in awhile. George RR Martin quality. Well not quite but close.
   
   Where I think the novel breaks down is in the "modern era", the time in which the main character actually lives. It's very oppressive and restrictive. Privacy is limited to the extreme, where a person can download another person's personal information on the fly, where people go to jail for seemingly very minor altercations. This in and of itself is not a problem, but to have this kind of society coupled with time travel didn't ring true with me. How could a society this restrictive allow time travel? It would be way too dangerous to allow someone the chance of going back and changing the "status quo". Luckily, little time is spent in the modern world, so you only have to deal with these conundrums for a short while.
   
   A good book. Not great, but still, Oliver is one to watch for in the future.



4. Sojurn is a great read not only for Sci Fi readers but also Mystery and Victorian England. Who is the real villan in 1888 and who is really pulling the strings at Corporate in 2057? A lot of intrigue and you definitely don't want to put it down. It makes you demand a second in the series.



5. Jana Oliver is a consummate story teller, who does not shirk from the daunting task of creating a time travel tale in the setting of 1888 London. Her details are astounding, her characterization superb and her plot line devilishly captivating.
   
   Jana's sequel, Virtual Evil follows suit wonderfully!