Jack the Ripper
In 1888 in Whitechapel, London, five prostitutes weren’t merely stabbed to death but butchered. Though untouched, decent women were frightened. Scotland Yard turned out full-force to track down the monster the press labelled Jack the Ripper.
Suspects from all levels of society were interviewed, but none fit the bill. In the event, “Jack” wasn’t caught. He became a legend. A few years ago Yank novelist Patricia Cornwell conducted her own investigation, and after studying the records fingered one of the dead suspects. Britain’s finest scoffed. Now and again he’s the subject of books and films.
The most recent is by American adventure writer Clive Cussler. The title The Cutthroat is misleading in that Jack cut open his victims bodies, not throats. And prostitutes were his game. Among the author’s popular literary creations is Isaac Bell, a private investigator of the global Van Dorn Agency.
Cussler’s Bell series is set in the US of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the plot, the fiend emigrated to America and is earning his living as an actor. And prostitutes remain his prey. In 1911, the scrivener notes the conflict between the established stage and the movies yet to be taken seriously.
Bell’s wife, Marion Morgan, is a leading film star and director. Jack is cast in one of her productions. It takes Bell a while to realise who his quarry actually is. The reader is asked to believe that the two men engage in a filmed, but real, sword fight to the death.
Cussler combines genuine and imaginary people of the pre-World War I period in The Cutthroat, though many readers won’t know the difference. Which applies to his long list of personae.
This thriller by no means puts the Jack the Ripper legend to rest. There have been more bloody killers, not all caught, but none has seized the public imagination to anywhere near the same extent.
This reviewer thinks Cornwell got it right. Perhaps the truth will be uncovered one day. Until then, it will continue to be written about and filmed.
Cussler’s version is as good as any, better than most.