Dan Leno, the great music hall comedian, was known in his lifetime as 'the funniest man on earth'. So how could he have been involved in one of the most curious episodes in London's history when, in a short period during the autumn of 1880, a series of murders was attributed to the mysterious 'Limehouse Golem'?
In Peter Ackroyd's novel the world of late-Victorian music hall and pantomime becomes implicated in a number of sinister scenes and episodes, and the connection between the light and dark sides of nineteenth-century London begins to attract contemporary figures as George Gissing and Karl Marx. But there are also less well-known characters who play a significant role in the narrative. What, for example, is the secret of Elizabeth Cree, about to hang for the murder of her husband?
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[On the 6th April, 1881, a woman was hanged within the walls of Camberwell Prison]***
(Vintage, 24 August 2017, copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I was hooked from the opening pages of The Limehouse Golem and could not stop reading, utterly gripped.
Comparisons are easily made between the events in this book and the infamous Jack the Ripper. I rarely read historical fiction especially historical crime but this fantastic book has encouraged me to seek out more.
Ackroyd brings Victorian London to brilliant, brutal and vivid life; the dark alleys, the disease, the filth, the whores, the blend of light and dark. It's rare that an author creates something so atmospheric and real.
The Limehouse Golem is dark, bloody and thoroughly enjoyable.
I loved the way the book was structured with straight-forward narrative interwoven with disturbing journal entries by the murderer and transcripts of Elizabeth Cree's trial for her husband's murder. This worked really well.
The Limehouse Golem is brilliant. Now I really want to watch the movie.