Sherlock Holmes and The Ripper File - Paperback

by Antony James (Author), Lindsay Siviter (Editor)

Since 1888 the gruesome crimes of Jack the Ripper have been a never-ending source of fascination to generations of professional, amateur, and armchair detectives. What is more, those murders are no nearer being solved today as they were back in Victorian times - or are they?

This book, set in 1908, is the Ripper story told through the eyes of Sherlock Holmes, or rather Dr. John Watson for it is he who on a visit to see the retired consulting detective asks Holmes whether his services were ever called upon by Scotland Yard twenty years earlier.

It transpires that Holmes was indeed instrumental in stopping the Ripper, but that he is unwilling to divulge the identity of the serial killer as he is still sworn to secrecy. However, he challenges Watson to take a retrospective look at the case using all the available information from the time, which he had gathered and bound into a Ripper File. With Holmes acting as guide they visit the scenes of the murders where clues are still to be found nearly two decades later.

It is most certainly a case of solvitur ambulando, but does Watson come to the same conclusion as Holmes did back in the day? All will be revealed in a text, includes nearly 100 illustrations, which should be a must for all those who wish to follow in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper, and discover his true identity.