The Ripper Code by Thomas Toughill
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I do love to read another theory on who Jack The Ripper was; as this theory involved Oscar Wilde I was doubly intrigued.
The book opens with the ubiquitous rehashing of the murders and their context. This is well written and although I’ve read this in numerous shapes and forms, it was quite readable.
Then the theory kicks in and this is where it all went wrong for me. It suddenly felt like I was reading an episode of Ancient Aliens – where the author KNEW that what he was writing was quite far-fetched and tenuous however he needed to assert the theory with ‘it is probable that’ or ‘it could be suggested that’ (or similar phrases – these aren’t direct quotes from the book).
The well structured and well measured prose of the first section of the book gives way to almost inane ramblings, desperate to prove their hypothesis.
It’s a real pity as it’s an interesting idea but there seems to be little firm evidence to support it.
I’d recommend this to people who’d like to read another book about the murderer but don’t expect to be adding Frank Miles to the list of suspects following this book.
