Sherlock Holmes The whitechapel Horror.

Edward B. Hanna sets Holmes on the trail of the most infamous killer of the Victorian Era in this well written and thoroughly absorbing mystery novel. I think it was just the year before the gruesome and as yet still unsolved series of murders that Sherlock Holmes had been introduced to the world so this episode in the "life" takes place some time around The Hound Of The Baskervilles and before Holmes disappearance.after Reichenbach "he was absent from London for almost three years,absent and believed dead." Edward B. Hannah knows his stuff, not just the proper Holmesian time line but also a strong grasp of the culture and times of the Victorian era. the splendour and the squalor are brought back to life with conviction and insight. The people of this novel speak as the people of the era and use language Conan doyle would certainly not have dreampt of using. At least not on paper or in print. He was a gentleman after all, of the old school.
              Holmes pursues the Ripper with all his vigour and all his brilliance. Illuminating along the way many dark corners of the Victorian establishment. Not all the filth of London was confined to the stinking alleyways and packed thorough fares of Whitechapel and the whole East End. Watson manfully tries at all times to relate that which he observes with a fair and descent eye but at times finds himself far out of his comfort zones(actually I find that an overused and self pitying modern trope)Here was an ex army officer who had fought and been wounded in Afghanistan but who blushes in the company of Oscar Wilde,like a likeable old trout gasping for air in a silken net.
             Not every reader is going to like how Edward B. Hanna resolves the mystery of the Rippers identity or at least the conclusion Holmes reaches.I did. I like it very much and there is always room for more names in the frame for this monstrous mystery which seems no nearer solution.
             The game is afoot and the destination is Whitechapel.
             Sensible footwear is advised.