The Ripper's Shadow

Book excerpt: With Jack the Ripper terrorizing Victorian London, a motley crew of amateur sleuths investigates the dark alleys of Whitechapel to bring the killer to justice Jack the Ripper begins his reign of terror in the year 1888 when Miss Sarah Bain, a photographer in Whitechapeland—and an independent woman with dark secrets—gets roped in on the crime. In the privacy of her studio, she supplements her meager income by taking illicit “boudoir photographs” of the town's local ladies of the night. But, when two of her models are found gruesomely murdered within weeks of one another, Sarah begins to suspect it's more than mere coincidence. Teamed with a motley crew of friends—including a street urchin, a gay aristocrat, a Jewish butcher and his wife, and a beautiful young actress—Sarah delves into the crime of the century. But just as she starts unlocking the Ripper's secrets, she catches the attention of the local police, who believe she knows more than she's revealing, as well as from the Ripper himself, whom is now bent on silencing her and her friends for good. Caught in the crosshairs of a ruthless killer, Sarah races through Whitechapel's darkest alleys to find the truth...until she makes a shocking discovery that challenges everything she thought she knew about the case. Intelligent, original, and utterly engrossing, Laura Joh Rowland's Victorian mystery The Ripper's Shadow will keep readers up through the late hours of the night.