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A review by elegantmechanic
The Thames Torso Murders by M.J. Trow
mysterious
medium-paced
1.0
Short, disappointing, doesn't really go anywhere. It's only 155 pages but is nevertheless heavily padded out. If we're being generous, there's only 100 pages on the torso murders in here with the rest dedicated to irrelevant summaries of unrelated cases in different eras which do nothing to illuminate the supposed subject of the book.
There's a chapter summarising Jack the Ripper, a chapter listing various known lunatics of the time who couldn't have been the torso killer, a chapter of pure speculation which is rapidly presented as fact about a "cats meat man" suspect who cannot even be shown to have existed.
The writing style is dull which makes the occasional out of place humorous asides and sudden ironic exclamation marks when the author thinks he has hit upon a wry observation all the more jarring. I didn't get anything out of this to make it a keeper.
There's a chapter summarising Jack the Ripper, a chapter listing various known lunatics of the time who couldn't have been the torso killer, a chapter of pure speculation which is rapidly presented as fact about a "cats meat man" suspect who cannot even be shown to have existed.
The writing style is dull which makes the occasional out of place humorous asides and sudden ironic exclamation marks when the author thinks he has hit upon a wry observation all the more jarring. I didn't get anything out of this to make it a keeper.