Ripper as there are well … Sherlock Holmes pastiches. But how many books match Arthur Conan Doyle against Jack the Ripper? And team Doyle up with his mentor and inspiration for Sherlock Holmes Dr. Joseph Bell? And further add in Margaret Harkness, a real-life author and fierce activist who functions as both damsel in distress and constant rescuer of Doyle and Bell? And entangles Doyle and the Ripper so completely that no one else could ever bring the serial murderer of women to justice? The Knife in the Fog has all these things.
More, author Bradley Harper brings a sterling ear for the voice of the narrator to the proceedings—not the voice of Watson, but the voice of Doyle himself, which is different. If sometimes that voice seems overly dry, and occasionally over pedantic. If you’ve read any of Doyle’s non-fiction works, you’ll recognize it, and appreciate the thoroughness of the research Harper brings to this little tale, as well as a very plausible (and I think, original) candidate for the identity of the Ripper unmasked. And a wholly convincing and nerve-rattling denouement to his tale.
It’s not a perfect tale—the subplot of the men in the checked jackets could have been jettisoned, and some of the lighter moments are marred by repetition, but on the whole this is an original and very satisfying tale. Pick it up and read it before it gets made into a movie, and then you can lord it over your friends by saying “the book was better”.