[Chasing Shadows][bookdetail] is a Jack the Ripper, murder mystery noir. The main character is Jim Daulton, a modern day graduate student in history traveling to London to study/research a paper. Little does Jim know that he’s about to get involved in the White Chapel murders and help identify Jack the Ripper.
The story has elements of ‘Somewhere in Time’ (yes the movie with superman and the penny), Woody Allen’s ‘Shadows and Fog’ and ‘The Star Chamber’. However, it lacks the romance and passion of ‘Somewhere in Time’, lacks the humor, charm and intellect of ‘Shadows and Fog’ not to mention no Mia Farrow. And the maladroit conspiracy is thin and dry.
It is a good first book, but several factors make this a difficult read. The author chose to cloud the native Londoner’s speech by writing it phonetically. This doesn’t add anything to the story and is often inconsistent even within the same scene and slows down the reading of the book.
Key points of the plot are told in conveniently placed speeches leaving the reader thinking the author has suddenly taken over the character and is just speaking for him. An example of this is when the key detectives typically wealthy hard-nosed capitalistic father, who’s very disappointed that his son disgraced the family name by wanting to be a policeman, explains the mysterious markings found at the crime scene.
There are a couple of very out of place sex scenes. Also not necessary to the plot and the reader can tangibly feel the author’s discomfort in writing these sections.
The lack of scenery in the book is disappointing. The protagonist is supposed to be a historian, yet he takes very little interest in the history he gets to live. Instead he drinks, plays some rugby and winds up involved with a prostitute. And according to the jacket, the author is a history teacher yet the book lacks the touches of a historical fiction novel like [The Man From St. Petersburg][follett] by [Ken Follett][author].
If you like author’s first novels or enjoy the Jack the Ripper genre then consider checking out Chasing Shadows.
[bookdetail]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/189
[follett]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/bookdetail/book_id/526
[author]: http://books.clubreading.com/book/browsebook/pagenum/1/author/Ken%20%20Follett
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