THE MICHAELMAS GIRLS

Hardback. A novel. The girls of the title are the 6 prostitutes murdered by Jack the Ripper between August 7th and November 9th 1888. "The streets of 19th century Whitechapel teem about us, the smoky terror which filled them at night enfolds us, and we might be actually present with the police as they are faced with these grisly deaths." At that time Christopher Keele was a voluntary social worker at Toynbee Hall, at the centre of the neighbourhood haunted by the Ripper. He began to pick the brains of journalists and policemen, to attend the inquests, and to talk to people who had known the victims, recording his findings and his speculations in his diary - which is this novel. Gradually what Christopher sees and hears adds up to an appalling hunch: the Ripper was working not alone but in partnership with a woman. And by the end of this powerful novel the reader, too, is convinced, so strong is the evidence in favour of an unholy alliance similar to that which existed in California between Charles Manson and his disciples. What Christopher discovers is, of course, what the American novelist, John Brooks Barry believes after extensive research and a long sojourn in Whitechapel studing every inch of the terrain. But the novel's impact derives from other things beside the persuasiveness of the argument. Jacket illustration by Dan Pearce. 262pp. 8vo. h/back. F. in Nr. F. sl. sunned dw.