Happy Friday!
It's been a while since I did an Off the Shelf post, but I discovered a series that I have to share! The Mayhem and Murder series by Sarah Pinborough is a fantastic duology that presents a fictional account of the Thames Torso murders, a case I was not super familiar with before reading this series.
This series of murders occurred around the same time that Jack the Ripper was terrorizing London, leading most of the Torso cases to be overshadowed by Jack's dramatic and gruesome tactics. While there are similarities, like the butchering of the victims, police ruled out any connection between the two. It's horrifying to think that there were at least two such brutal killers living in the same vicinity during the 1880s.
The first book was fascinating and inspired me to do more research into the non-fiction side of these cases, but I was delighted to find there was a second book in the series. Here are links to the books, along with the summary of each.
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From the Number One bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes. Delve into a gaslit London, where Jack the Ripper is making headlines, but another, much more dangerous, madman is on the loose.
When a rotting torso is discovered in the vault of New Scotland Yard, it doesn't take Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, long to realise that there is a second killer at work in the city where, only a few days before, Jack the Ripper brutally murdered two women in one night.
This is the hand of a colder killer, one who lacks Jack's emotion.
And, as more headless and limbless torsos find their way into the Thames, Dr Bond becomes obsessed with finding the killer. As his investigations lead him into an unholy alliance, he starts to wonder:
Is it a man who has brought mayhem to the streets of London, or a monster?
From the Number One bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes: Jack the Ripper is vanished, but Dr Thomas Bond is back - and this time the trial of murders leads straight to his front door.
Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, is still recovering from the events of the previous year when Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London - and a more malign enemy hid in his shadow. Bond and the others who worked on the gruesome case are still stalked by its legacies, both psychological and tangible.
But now the bodies of children are being pulled from the Thames . . . and Bond is about to become inextricably linked with an uncanny, undying enemy.
Happy Reading!
