Veteran of the American Civil War, failed husband, ex-lawman now turned novelist, Denton is an uncomfortable outsider in class-ridden turn-of-the-century England. But he is about to be plunged into the dark heart of a society where privilege and propriety hide unspeakable horrors. When a seeming madman turns up at his door declaring he has just seen Jack the Ripper, Denton dismisses his lurid ravings as the syptoms of sexual dementia. But when a prostitute's horribly mutilated body is discovered that night in the Minories, Denton suspects there is a connection between the two events. While the police investigation grinds towards a seemingly preordained conclusion, Denton becomes obsessed with finding out who Stella Minter really was and who killed her - a search that leads him by degrees into London's grim sexual underbelly, and to an uncomfortable confrontation with his own desires.
The Frightened Man is a Victorian-era mystery that I picked up at the library because it had a spooky cover and the inner flap mentioned Jack the Ripper. What can I say, when books are free, it doesn't take too much to lure me in.
Much to my disappointment, it was not actually about JtR, but about a similar killing that leaves everyone reminded of the infamous killer. Denton is a sheriff-turned-author-turned-sleuth who gets pulled in when the titular frightened man shows up at his doorstep babbling about a murdered girl.
It's a solid enough mystery, although nothing stands out to bump it up to 4 stars. It had an unexpected feminist leaning, with the main character subtly musing throughout on the societal standards of the day and becoming romantically attracted to a self-sufficient woman due to the mutual respect that grows between them. It had the same sort of problems that amateur detective mysteries often have - I always felt like he didn't have very convincing reasons for pursuing the case behind the backs of the multitude of law enforcement characters, especially when he was bankrupting himself to do it. Despite that, I'd be interested in reading the author's next mystery.
Reading updates
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27 May, 2009:
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27 May, 2009:
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