Historical Figures - Fiction, Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Other Mystery Categories
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Overview
The fourth installment in a chilling World War II crime mystery series featuring undertaker Francis Hancock, by the author of the Inspector Ikmen Mysteries
In East London, 1940, Francis Hancock finds the brutally eviscerated body of a woman in a derelict house. Francis' sister, Nancy, knew the victim. Then, shockingly, two more murders follow. Rumors start to spread through the East End about a modern day Jack the Ripper. When a fourth woman is murdered, Nancy admits that she knew all of the victims, and Francis sets out to find the killer, discovering a trail of murderous resentment that goes back decades.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Set in early 1941, Nadel's unremarkable fourth Francis Hancock mystery (after 2008's Ashes to Ashes) involves yet another search for a latter-day Jack the Ripper. Hancock, a 48-year-old undertaker and Great War veteran, happens on the mutilated corpse of Nellie Martin in a ruined house in London's bomb-ravaged East End. Even before a second victim turns up, rumors swirl that the Ripper has returned, despite the half-century that has passed since the 1888 autumn of terror. Hancock eventually learns that each of the women had been a White Feather girl who confronted able-bodied men seen out of uniform during WWI and presented them with white feathers as a symbol of cowardice. He's unsettled to discover that his older sister also participated in the movement. A less than compelling whodunit plot and a hero whose torment over his war experiences appears commonplace compared to that of, say, Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge make this a routine read. (Nov.)Book Details
Published
September 1, 2011
Publisher
Headline Book Publishing, Limited
Pages
320
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780755357604