Your Most Recent Ripper Book : Your Views- 2/18/2011

[admin tim]

Originally Posted by Paul

Unfortunately, one has to read them to find out that they aren't worth reading!

Not so! I rely on the reviews by the membership and other discerning individuals to steer me toward worthwhile reads, or away from the others. I haven't made a bad decision on this yet, although I DID buy Cornwell's book in hardback simply because it was remaindered at a heavy, heavy discount. I think I got it for a dollar or so.

So thanks to Paul, and to you others who continue to take one for the team tome and again (a double pun if you're keeping count! Plus it began as a simple misspelling), reading this lot of tripe so those like me don't have to.

[Howard Brown]

Tim:

If that's the case.. that you rely on the critiquing abilities of fellow Forumites...even this Begg fellow...than may I steer you in the direction of The London Of Jack The Ripper, Then And Now by Rob Clack & Phil Hutchinson ...Its a very fine book.
You can trust my judgment because I'm real smart.

[George Hutchinson]

Philip loves How. Just not in a touch-y sort-of way.

DEATH OF A PRINCE knocks PSYCHIC INVESTIGATION into a cocked hat. It's hilarious, bizarre, and even offensive. If you can get a copy (it was only published in Australia) I'd recommend it for all the wrong reasons.

PHILIP

[Paul]

Originally Posted by George Hutchinson

Philip loves How. Just not in a touch-y sort-of way.

DEATH OF A PRINCE knocks PSYCHIC INVESTIGATION into a cocked hat. It's hilarious, bizarre, and even offensive. If you can get a copy (it was only published in Australia) I'd recommend it for all the wrong reasons.

PHILIP

Well, I'd have said all that if I could have done so as succinctly. Not the stuff about loving How, not even if he said nice things about my book, but about Death of a Prince. It's literally jaw-dropping at times, but a pacey read that I couldn't put it down.

[Nemo]

I thought you were having me on and I was going to ask further, but I found this extensive review at "Books to Run Away From" which others may like to read if they haven't come across the book before...

http://spookedrun.blogspot.com/2007/...-we-do_23.html

I like where he says it failed to make sense throughout and got worse toward the end...


Druids, Masons and King Arthur interwoven with the Ripper case - that's a winner in my book

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Druids, Masons and King Arthur interwoven with the Ripper case - that's a winner in my book

Unfortunately it proved not to be in theirs.

[Howard Brown]

Man, you know a book is pretty gnarly if occult-friendly people give an occult-themed book the thumbs down. Ordinarily, you could write an occult-based piece on the top of a car hood and those folks would dig it.
Thanks for the heads up about the Death of a Prince (DOAP ).
How loves Phil too...for all the right reasons too.

[Karen Sweet]

I actually found JTR: A Psychic Investigation by Pamela Ball an appalling read.

[Mike Covell]

Originally Posted by Karen Sweet

I actually found JTR: A Psychic Investigation by Pamela Ball an appalling read.

You spelt "appealing" wrong.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

I recently read, and enjoyed, Robert A. Snow's In Pursuit of Jack the Ripper, An Introduction to the Whitechapel Murders (2010, Outskirts Press). Here's what I said about it in my files:

Snow, a retired New York police Deputy Chief, gives a brief, yet thorough, look at the Whitechapel Murders. He studies all the murders, with the exception of the Pinchin Street Torso (which he dismisses out of hand), then offers short chapters on “The Victims,” “The Crime Scenes,” “The Injuries,” “Violent Onset,” “The Genesis of Jack,” “Ripper Victims,” “Ripper Suspects,” “Chasing Jack” and “Conclusions.”
He concludes that the Ripper probably murdered all the Whitechapel victims with the exception of Emma Smith and Catharine Mylett; that no suspect so far put forth was the Ripper and that if the Police had concentrated their investigation around George Yard they might have caught the murderer because of the importance of the first victim (in this case Tabram) to an investigation.
I found myself agreeing with much of what he writes but there were problems. He feels that both the murder of Stride and Coles were interrupted and so the Ripper didn’t have a chance to mutilate these victims. He also argues, apparently without knowing all the facts, that Kelly’s heart was not taken away by her killer. A few facts were wrong and he doesn’t seem to realize that Kim Rossimo is no longer with the Vancouver Police, just accepting, apparently, what the back of Rossimo’s book states. However, this was a fairly good book offering an unbiased police view of the case.

Wolf.