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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
I really loved this book. It was a wonderful combination of fact and fiction and it worked really well, whereas I've seen this sort of thing fail in the past. I'm definitely going to buy more Sarah Pinborough books in the future!
I did some research on the murders this book is based on, I'm not up for that level of gruesome at the moment.
Jack the Ripper was not the only serial killer roaming the streets of London in 1888. Between 1887 and 1889, at least three women were killed and dismembered, and parts of their bodies disposed of in the Thames, although in one case, the torso and other parts were discovered on the grounds of the construction site for the new Scotland Yard building. The identity of the Thames Torso killer has never been determined, and there is some question as to whether the three murders he is agreed to have committed are the full extent of his crimes, as similar cases, also unsolved, had occurred in 1873-4 and 1884.
In Mayhem, Sarah Pinbourough infuses the facts of the Thames Torso Murders with a markedly supernatural story of possession by an ancient spirit of evil. The novel is centred on police surgeon Thomas Bond, who was an early practitioner of the science of forensic profiling, having produced a profile of the Ripper. Bond did play a historical role in the investigation of both the Ripper and the Thames Torso killer, performing autopsies on both Mary Jane Kelly and the second of the Torso killer's victims, Elizabeth Jackson. The novel gives him a much greater role, however, in the detection and final resolution of the murders.
I thoroughly enjoyed Pinborough's genre-bending historical crime horror novel on all counts.
Just the right amount of horror for me but probably very tame for horror fans. Jack the Ripper's story has always fascinated me so I am slightly biased but this was well written and quite riveting most of the way through.
There are almost two stories at play in Mayhem – one about the chaos caused by the Ripper murders, and one about Dr. Bond. The Torso Killer simply connects the two stories with a mixture of supernatural creepiness and unbelievable factuality. Unfortunately, Ms. Pinborough spends too little time on the Ripper murders, too much time on the Torso Killer, and even more time on Bond’s afterwork activities. Just when momentum builds for either murder investigation, the action shifts to Bond’s side inquiries, something made less than exciting by the fact that they involve an obsessed cleric, a mentally unstable immigrant, and heavy reliance on a strong psychotropic drug. The dream-like quality of these portions of the story fails to complement the gruesome truth behind the other probes.
Saving Mayhem from becoming a complete disaster is Ms. Pinborough’s excellent prose. She excels at bringing to life all of the filthy, odorific elements of Victorian London. This serves to heighten the grimness of life on the streets and the challenges faced by the investigators as well as offset the flights of fancy brought about by the mysterious evil entity at work in London.
In Mayhem, the combination of fact and supernatural fantasy does not coalesce into a seamless, interesting story. There is too large a gap between the two, requiring a bit more suspension of disbelief than readers will be willing to expend. Bond is at first a sympathetic figure in all of his exhaustion but quickly turns into a tragic figure as his reliance on self-administered opium increases. So much time is spent on Bond’s visits to the opium dens that they seem to become the focal point of the narrative rather than the two murder investigations. The narrative suffers as a result, and the entire story remains a mish-mash of genres that never joins into a story that fully captures a reader’s imagination and attention.
Saving Mayhem from becoming a complete disaster is Ms. Pinborough’s excellent prose. She excels at bringing to life all of the filthy, odorific elements of Victorian London. This serves to heighten the grimness of life on the streets and the challenges faced by the investigators as well as offset the flights of fancy brought about by the mysterious evil entity at work in London.
In Mayhem, the combination of fact and supernatural fantasy does not coalesce into a seamless, interesting story. There is too large a gap between the two, requiring a bit more suspension of disbelief than readers will be willing to expend. Bond is at first a sympathetic figure in all of his exhaustion but quickly turns into a tragic figure as his reliance on self-administered opium increases. So much time is spent on Bond’s visits to the opium dens that they seem to become the focal point of the narrative rather than the two murder investigations. The narrative suffers as a result, and the entire story remains a mish-mash of genres that never joins into a story that fully captures a reader’s imagination and attention.
A fun murder mystery with a supernatural killer. The story is set in the late 1880s London, when Jack the Ripper was at large-and also the Torso Killer, a lesser known murderer who chopped up his victims. I liked the winding together of two (actually 3, in the end) famous London murders and there's a lot of fun, recognizable Victorian touches--opium dens, young men taking ill-advised side trips during their grand tour, housemaids in love. But the mystery and characters didn't, for me, ever become really compelling, although I liked all of them well enough. There were a couple of moments that jumped out at me as anachronistic, which isn't something I'm usually that sensitive about, so when something jumps out at me it feels like it must be obvious.
As somebody really interested in Jack the Ripper it made me want to read more non-fiction about it rather than wanting more about these characters, iow.
As somebody really interested in Jack the Ripper it made me want to read more non-fiction about it rather than wanting more about these characters, iow.
Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough
305 pages
★★★ ½
This book takes place in England during the infamous Jack the Ripper killing but this book doesn’t focus on that as much it does on the Thames Torso Killings which were occurring at the same time – another infamous killing spree never solved, even today. The characters are loosely based off actual people (both those murdered and those investigating) but that’s where it ends. The author adds a paranormal/horror twist to it all speculating what if there something more than human behind the torso killings?
I thought it started out strong. A lot of the book focuses on Dr. Bond, a real person and a fascinating one at that – one of the first to use criminal profiling. Of course she puts her own twist on this man’s personality. The author moves between the point of view of several characters which is fine but she went back and forth between first person and third person writing which annoyed me. I didn’t find myself connecting to any of the characters, except for perhaps Dr. Bond on occasion, but I didn’t really care what happened. The writing is inconsistent, speeding along and then slowing down – like that annoying person in front of you on the road who speeds up just to put their brakes on for heck if you know why. The ending was really rushed. You go through 298 just for the last 7 pages to run through the whole climatic end? Not cool. It did keep my attention well enough though and supposedly is coming out with a second book to this one at some point, something I’ll give a try.
My final thoughts? Good beginning, poor ending. Character development lacking. A quick read.
305 pages
★★★ ½
This book takes place in England during the infamous Jack the Ripper killing but this book doesn’t focus on that as much it does on the Thames Torso Killings which were occurring at the same time – another infamous killing spree never solved, even today. The characters are loosely based off actual people (both those murdered and those investigating) but that’s where it ends. The author adds a paranormal/horror twist to it all speculating what if there something more than human behind the torso killings?
I thought it started out strong. A lot of the book focuses on Dr. Bond, a real person and a fascinating one at that – one of the first to use criminal profiling. Of course she puts her own twist on this man’s personality. The author moves between the point of view of several characters which is fine but she went back and forth between first person and third person writing which annoyed me. I didn’t find myself connecting to any of the characters, except for perhaps Dr. Bond on occasion, but I didn’t really care what happened. The writing is inconsistent, speeding along and then slowing down – like that annoying person in front of you on the road who speeds up just to put their brakes on for heck if you know why. The ending was really rushed. You go through 298 just for the last 7 pages to run through the whole climatic end? Not cool. It did keep my attention well enough though and supposedly is coming out with a second book to this one at some point, something I’ll give a try.
My final thoughts? Good beginning, poor ending. Character development lacking. A quick read.
**SPOILERS**
Mayhem takes place during the events of Jack the Ripper. Dr. Bond, a well-respected police surgeon, becomes caught up in the hunt for another, more viscous, killer whose motive for killing is not of this world…and I hated it. Based on the jacket description and reader reviews, this book sounded like a story I would love. I think this book fell short for me for four reasons.
1. Elizabeth Jackson, one of the unfortunate victims of the vicious killer, is seven months pregnant when she meets her end. When her body parts are found (she has been beheaded, her limbs severed, and her torso gutted) the police try to identify her by sending out a description of her build and the clothes she was dressed in. They also said she was a woman who was seven months pregnant. HOW could they tell if she had been seven months pregnant if she had been gutted? That was too ridiculous.
2. I felt that most of the perspectives did not have a clear voice, they all sounded alike to me. Pinborough gives her readers seven (which is about three speakers too many) perspectives and with the exception of the Elizabeth Jackson character all of the perspectives sound the same. I never felt like any character was unique so I often had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself who was speaking.
3. The reader is meant to believe that Juliana is a lively and unique young woman for Victorian London. Yet we are never shown that. She barely speaks and we have to take the word of the opium addicted Dr. Bond. I cannot bring myself to care for or worry about what danger she may or may not be in if her character development is non-existent.
4. The words mad and madness are so overused that I began saying them out loud every time I came across one on the page. Eventually my S.O. begged me to stop because he could not believe a slinger of words could not be more creative in word selection. I cringed every time I came across an instance of mad/madness. For example…
I thought of our madness, and the madness of how we must look, but I still found it comfort in being around them. Kosminski had known I was coming—he had seen it. Such visions were not madness; they were surely a gift. (232)
For a while I was reading either mad or madness once a page which was incredibly distracting.
There were other minor points that added to my dislike of this book. One character, Kosminski, alludes to an event of the past that has left him with feelings of revulsion towards one of his sisters, yet you are never told what that event was and it is never again referred to. Why bother bringing it up? The same is true of Dr. Bond. He smokes his opium to remember some lady, a lost love perhaps, but, again, nothing develops from it so why bother? This book reads as though Pinborough is desperately trying to make word count for a school paper and the result is plot lines that either go nowhere or do not make any sense. Save yourself the frustration of a truly disappointing read and skip Mayhem.
Mayhem takes place during the events of Jack the Ripper. Dr. Bond, a well-respected police surgeon, becomes caught up in the hunt for another, more viscous, killer whose motive for killing is not of this world…and I hated it. Based on the jacket description and reader reviews, this book sounded like a story I would love. I think this book fell short for me for four reasons.
1. Elizabeth Jackson, one of the unfortunate victims of the vicious killer, is seven months pregnant when she meets her end. When her body parts are found (she has been beheaded, her limbs severed, and her torso gutted) the police try to identify her by sending out a description of her build and the clothes she was dressed in. They also said she was a woman who was seven months pregnant. HOW could they tell if she had been seven months pregnant if she had been gutted? That was too ridiculous.
2. I felt that most of the perspectives did not have a clear voice, they all sounded alike to me. Pinborough gives her readers seven (which is about three speakers too many) perspectives and with the exception of the Elizabeth Jackson character all of the perspectives sound the same. I never felt like any character was unique so I often had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself who was speaking.
3. The reader is meant to believe that Juliana is a lively and unique young woman for Victorian London. Yet we are never shown that. She barely speaks and we have to take the word of the opium addicted Dr. Bond. I cannot bring myself to care for or worry about what danger she may or may not be in if her character development is non-existent.
4. The words mad and madness are so overused that I began saying them out loud every time I came across one on the page. Eventually my S.O. begged me to stop because he could not believe a slinger of words could not be more creative in word selection. I cringed every time I came across an instance of mad/madness. For example…
I thought of our madness, and the madness of how we must look, but I still found it comfort in being around them. Kosminski had known I was coming—he had seen it. Such visions were not madness; they were surely a gift. (232)
For a while I was reading either mad or madness once a page which was incredibly distracting.
There were other minor points that added to my dislike of this book. One character, Kosminski, alludes to an event of the past that has left him with feelings of revulsion towards one of his sisters, yet you are never told what that event was and it is never again referred to. Why bother bringing it up? The same is true of Dr. Bond. He smokes his opium to remember some lady, a lost love perhaps, but, again, nothing develops from it so why bother? This book reads as though Pinborough is desperately trying to make word count for a school paper and the result is plot lines that either go nowhere or do not make any sense. Save yourself the frustration of a truly disappointing read and skip Mayhem.
This was unsatisfying. Not because it was bad but because as with The Quick by Lauren Owen, I didn't realise this was a vampire book and the vampire was... Unexplained. I wanted a bit more history around the monster and less about the doctor's addiction.
The ending so felt too quick and unresolved while the middle dragged on.
I have too many unanswered questions.
I am wondering if I will read the sequal but I suspect I will need a very good reason to do so.
The ending so felt too quick and unresolved while the middle dragged on.
I have too many unanswered questions.
I am wondering if I will read the sequal but I suspect I will need a very good reason to do so.
Good read. Fast paced with interesting and complex characters. Worth the read. Finished in one sitting