Okay, this one was fun. (Well, as much fun as anything chronicling the days of the Ripper killings can be. It's not a story for the squeamish, certainly.) More important - it has the enthusiastic support of the Conan Doyle Estate! Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness (both of which I also thoroughly enjoyed & recommend), sums it up best: "At long last, an author of rare talent combines a thorough, enthusiastic knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes canon with truly rigorous research into, and respect for, what remains one of the greatest and most horrifying unsolved murder cases in modern history: the Jack the Ripper killings. Where others have failed, Lyndsay Faye's extremely impressive debut novel succeeds, on every level, providing thrilling entertainment without blatant exploitation. It will instantly take a place of distinction among the best attempts of contemporary authors to continue the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, and is, quite simply, a must for Holmes fans and Ripperologists alike."
The Back of the Jacket: "As England's greatest specialist in criminal detection, Sherlock Holmes is unwavering in his quest to capture the killer responsible for terrifying London's East End. He hires an "unfortunate" known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow street-walker who was one of the Ripper's earliest victims; and he relies heavily on the steadfast and devoted Dr. John H. Watson. When Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel during an attempt to catch the savage monster, the popular press launches an investigation of its own, questioning the great detective's role in the very crimes he is so fervently struggling to prevent. Stripped of his credibility, Holmes is left with no choice but to break every rule in his desperate race to find the madman known as "the Knife" - before it is too late."Genre(s): Mystery
Audience: Adult
Online Extras: LyndsayFaye.com; Amazon.com lets you read the first few pages
Reading Time: 2 days
Recommend: I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and Ms. Faye really caught the voice of Sir Arthur. While I can't picture Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock (it's always Jeremy Brett in my mind), Jude Law will forever be Dr. Watson.) Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and I'm a Holmes nitpicker.
I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.
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