This book is an interesting mash-up of Sherlockiana and Jack the Ripper. Set in Whitechapel twenty-eight years after the original murders of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly in 1888. Watson’s Sr. and Jr. plus Joanna and her son all get embroiled in the abduction of a talented actress and a Ripper copycat bent on besting Sherlock’s daughter…

Goldberg skillfully weaves together bits and pieces of Ripper lore, theory, and fact into a tightly packed narrative pitting Sherlock’s daughter and his methods against this notorious murderer.

I think what I enjoyed the most about this book is that the solution is purely fictional, meaning there’s no need to argue over its validity. A feature I find refreshing, as debates about the Ripper’s real identity can turn rather nasty if they don’t tally.

Not unlike the Shakespearian authorship question, which has plagued the literary world for well over 230 hundred years without a definitive answer. The cause celebre around the Ripper’s identity is younger at just over 133 years, ranks far higher on the pop-culture scale, and has had scores more eyes on it – and yet we are no closer to an answer.

And frankly, I don’t see a conclusive way to prove after all this time if someone’s great, great, great grandad was the Ripper. Unless the missing organs and/or the blood-stained implements are unearthed in someone’s attic, basement, or within a wall and still sporting viable DNA linking back to one or all of the aforementioned five victims.

Though, if such a find was made, and Jack turned out to be an unassuming, uninteresting person (rather than a royal surgeon or member of the Royal Family – as some theories claim), the legend of the Whitechapel Killer would probably die under the weight of this knowledge…

Thus I’ve demonstrated how provoking this unsolved case can be – and why a purely fictional ending set against facts, generally agreed on deductions, and widely held suppositions makes for enjoyable reading. Throw the Watsons and Holmes into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a tremendous late-night read!