A thoroughly engrossing story that elegantly blends history and fiction.
Sherlock Holmes investigates the murders of Jack the Ripper in this detective novel.
“Five. Fifteen more and then I give myself up.” So reads a letter to the police from the self-christened Jack the Ripper in 1888, and the local police call upon famed detective Holmes to aid in the investigation of five ghastly murders of women in the Whitechapel area of London. The case takes a psychological toll on Holmes, who narrates this tale, as inept police officers routinely bungle the collection of important evidence, and his partner, Dr. John H. Watson, is newly married, which alters the dynamic of their own relationship. When Holmes inspects a second letter from the Ripper, the detective realizes that the killer is referencing one of his past cases. This revelation, paired with the recently suspicious actions of Watson, leads Holmes to a highly disturbing thought: Could his friend and business partner have something to do with the heinous murders? In her newest novel, Wiseman, the author of The Kithseeker(2018), offers a compelling story that combines the gruesome history of the Ripper and his crimes with the logic and intellect of the consulting detective of Baker Street. The mystery is well paced, picking up delightfully during crucial moments of the investigation, as when townsfolk cry, “Murder! Police!” at the conclusion of one chapter or when Holmes later declares, “Seven. And thirteen more. I must move fast.” Wiseman’s language is reminiscent of that in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories and fully places the reader in the seedy surroundings of Whitechapel in the Victorian era. Similarly, the experience of dissecting the case alongside the brilliant sleuth—who, as one character notes, can see “what is darkness to the rest of us”—remains a pleasure even as appropriately grisly details of the murders are revealed. It will be an absorbing read for Sherlock-ians and fans of true crime, and it will keep readers on their toes throughout.
A thoroughly engrossing story that elegantly blends history and fiction.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73446-410-8
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the title, the by-the-numbers dishing and scheming are anything but colorful.
The wedding of a couple of people who know each other very well indeed forms the backdrop to Davis’ fourth Pen and Ink mystery.
All the 500 guests gathered for the Georgetown nuptials wish the best for the happy couple even though romance novelist Jacqueline Liebhaber has already been married twice, professor John Maxwell three times, and each of them once to the other, in a marriage that was shattered years ago by the kidnapping of their young daughter, Caroline, who was never found. Now that they’re getting back together, book reviewer Margarite Herbert-Grant joins a crowd of authors who know her rapier tongue all too well—debut government-intrigue storyteller Buzz Powers; literary novelist Arthur Bedlingham; his assistant, unpublished novelist Evan McDowell; and romance novelist Gabriella Archambeau (though not her husband; reclusive bestselling thriller writer Griffin Corbyn’s sent his excuses)—to celebrate, and waitress and aspiring reporter Cara Melton, who’s somehow crashed the party, demands to know just how John and Jacquie feel about Caroline’s loss. Florrie Fox, the adult-coloring-book creator who manages Color Me Read, the bookstore John owns, does her best to protect the couple from Cara’s intrusive questions. Despite her earlier brushes with homicide, Florrie can’t stop one of the wedding guests from feeding Evan enough THC–laced brownies to make him a perfect candidate for drowning in John’s swimming pool. But every cloud has a silver lining, and the horrid Cara’s stabbed to death as well. The mystery is perfunctory, the assembled authors drawn with a cartoonist’s brush, and the killer forgettable, but veteran Davis keeps a particularly deft surprise, along with half a dozen recipes, in reserve.
Despite the title, the by-the-numbers dishing and scheming are anything but colorful.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2465-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers who know better than to worry about whodunit will hurtle from one seat-of-the-pants ride to the next.
A Chicago taxi driver who’s seen it all gets to see it all again, and then some, in a fast-moving thriller first published in 1996.
To the stand-by rules that govern cab driving in the Windy City—don’t go west, don’t go south, don’t go back, don’t go to Cabrini–Green—a new one has been added: Don’t pick up anyone who might be the person who killed three inner-city drivers and has now branched out to the suburbs with a fourth victim. The thing is, when he stops to pick up someone who’s flagged him down, night-shift cabbie Eddie Miles, who’s already got the jitters from the night he found teenage prostitute Relita Brown brutally stabbed in a deserted street and saved her life by calling the cops, never knows where any trip will take him. Maybe his passengers will throw up in his cab. Maybe they’ll try to stiff him for the fare. Maybe they’ll lead him to a tavern, where he’ll spend the hours till closing time drinking with strangers while his cab’s meter chugs along profitably in the parking lot. Maybe they’ll give him legal advice about renegotiating the ruinous divorce settlement that allowed his ex-wife to move to California with their daughter, whom he hasn’t seen for seven years. Maybe they’ll pull a gun on him and tell him his number’s up. Clark plots like a driver with tunnel vision who can’t see beyond the next curve, writes the clipped prose of a caffeine-fueled insomniac, and records every fare and tip, or lack thereof, with the precision of a bookkeeper.
Readers who know better than to worry about whodunit will hurtle from one seat-of-the-pants ride to the next.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781803367477
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
