Last week, I reviewed the first season of The Crown, a series on Netflix about Queen Elizabeth II. Heather reviewed The Wicked + The Divine, a series of fantasy graphic novels, and Colour Bar, the book that inspired last year's movie, A United Kingdom. Tina reviewed In the Dark Places, #22 in the Inspector Banks series. Becky shared deeper thoughts about Oliver Twist and how it resonates in the modern world. Jean reviewed The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott, a look at the country folk of Scotland in the 18th century.
I can't quite explain my fascination for modern stories with a Jack the Ripper copycat theme, but I really loved The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson and Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton. When Sim mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago that the first season of Whitechapel features a Jack the Ripper copycat, I knew that I'd want to see that series. I ended up watching all four seasons in just a few days.
The three main characters are:
D.I. Joseph Chandler, played by Rupert Penry-Jones, a police detective with contacts, a promising career, and OCD that is, at times, nearly debilitating.
D.S. Ray Miles, played by Phil Davis, a sergeant with rough edges who is, at first, skeptical of the slick, well-dressed Chandler. Ultimately, though, the relationship between those two characters is what makes Whitechapel a heart-tugging show.
Edward Buchan, played by Steve Pemberton, a Ripperologist who has written a book and gives regular Ripper tours in Whitechapel. He's a consultant for the detectives in the first series and stays on as a police archivist, searching out historical precedents to present-day cases. As a librarian, I loved the role that archives and history played in Whitechapel.
My only disappointment was that the series ended too soon. They were in the midst of a long story arc, impacting all three major characters, about why so many ghoulish things happen in Whitechapel but the series was canceled before it was resolved.
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books