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Robert Masello writes in his author’s note that he read Jack the Ripper first struck when the stage version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was playing in the West End of London. The writer of that book, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the actor who played the title roles were both investigated by police. And so this story was born.
This strange tale alternates between a journal kept by Stevenson and events in the present day in Topanga Canyon, California. Stevenson acquired a potion from a specialist in Switzerland who treated him for his lifelong lung problems, and its effects inspired him to write his famous Jekyll and Hyde story. But then Jack the Ripper started terrorizing Whitechapel. Stevenson and a close friend, a journalist, started looking into the crimes. Eventually, certain clues lead Stevenson to worry about the possible culprit and the connection between his potion and the killings.
Meanwhile, in the present, environmental scientist Rafe Salazar is conducting his regular research on wildlife in the dry Topanga Canyon, particularly keeping watch on a pair of coyotes. On one of his patrols, he finds an old steamer trunk partially submerged in a small lake. It only contains an antique set of formal men’s clothes; a journal that, as he reads, he realizes is that of Stevenson, and a small flask. The clothes and the drops of liquid still remaining in the flask end up unleashing ancient evil, and Rafe is the only one who can stop it.
I read this because I was reminded recently of how much I appreciated Masello’s Blood and Ice, a very good thriller that brought an old source of terror to a station at the South Pole when scientists find two bodies entombed in ice. I liked the combination of history, science, suspense, and some fantastical elements to craft a page-turning suspense story. This book uses the same devices: history, science, suspense, and a touch of fantasy to bring evil from the past to the current day. I found I preferred the first, however; I don’t think I quite got as caught up in the story and characters in this one.
It was interesting to read a very different genre of book that’s about Robert Louis Stevenson, as I still remember much about him and his wife, Fanny, from a biographical novel called Under the Wide and Starry Sky. It was kind of fun to see the same people and their real experiences portrayed in a suspense book.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 15 uses of strong language, around 50 instances of moderate profanity, around 60 uses of mild language, and about 35 instances of the name of Deity in vain. The book has a number of references of drug use and sale; there is a meth lab and a pretty bad-news drug gang, and a couple who grow some marijuana but otherwise are harmless. Sexual content includes nudity (a couple live mostly off the grid and she often is topless), some brief sex scenes with minimal detail, mentions of prostitutes, and a few vulgar references. Violence includes fighting that leads to deaths, lethal fires, and the very gory details of the crimes of Jack the Ripper.
