Whitechapel: The Last Stand of Sherlock Holmes Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Brittion of Bookpleasures.com
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Dr. Wesley Britton
Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four non-fiction books on espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new six-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, debuted via BearManor Media.
In 2018, Britton self-published the seventh book in the Chronicles, Alpha Tales 2044, a collection of short stories, many of which first appeared at a number of online venues.
For seven years, he was co-host of online radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a host of entertainment insiders. Before his retirement in 2016, Dr. Britton taught English at Harrisburg Area Community College. Learn more about Dr. Britton at his WEBSITE
By Dr. Wesley Britton
Published on July 17, 2011
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1463612214
ISBN-13: 978-1463612214
.Click Here To Purchase Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Bernard Schaffer
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1463612214
ISBN-13: 978-1463612214
Since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s death in 1930, many a hand has taken a turn at re-imagining his most famous creation on radio, film, television, and in literature. Sherlock Holmes has battled Nazis, been thawed out in a cryogenics chamber, and updated to the 21st Century. It’s nothing new for a film or book to focus on Holmes addiction to the “seven percent solution” or have him track down the mysterious Jack the Ripper.
But few of these projects are as disturbing as Bernard Schaffer’s often sordid Whitechapel. For one matter, for ¾ of the story, Sherlock Holmes is primarily a supporting character, a bitter shadow of his former self. This Holmes is an angry cocaine addict who alienates his closest friends and refuses to leave his Baker Street lodgings to assist in the most heinous crime wave in London—the Jack the Ripper murders. Inspector Lestrade—a devotee of police brutality and himself a dabbler in the pleasures of Whitechapel prostitutes—can’t get Holmes to help while he duels with higher-ups more interested in their careers than police work. Even the heroic Dr. John Watson is forced away from his old friend and ends up teaming with the legendary Irene Adler to seek out a killer terrorizing all of London. All of these detectives are haunted by one personal crisis or another, but none are as haunted as one Monty Druitt.
Druitt’s story is the tale of a boy whose childhood is as scarring and depraved as any killer in the making, the victim of child abuse by an insane mother, a boy who witnesses the bloody suicide of his sister, a boy who helps his father cut up corpses in a mortuary. Insanity seems to run in the family and his barbaric propensities are described as graphically as any serial killer’s account in literature. No wonder police and civilians are continually spewing with revulsion at what Monty leaves behind, even in a harsh section of London where filthy poverty and vicious brutality are the order by both day and night.
Not until the final chapters does Holmes break his addiction and join the hunt after Watson and Adler put their lives on the line, Lestrade bloodies a few thuggish vigilantes, and older brother Mycroft stops by to seek a means to break through the clouds in the detective’s soul. As a result, this duel between good and evil isn’t about observational investigation skills but rather a story of redemption, heroes having to fight more than just a nocturnal psychopath, and a culture ill-equipped to deal with crime and its breeding grounds. The conclusion and denouement are filled with surprising twists and pull together the threads in this multi-layered yarn.
This dark book is riveting and gripping for those not faint of heart or are Homes purists. It’s a novel built on considerable historical research, a willingness to describe a hard world for what it was, and a good use of the original Sherlock Holmes canon to attract lovers of the Conan Doyle mythos. Disturbing, yes, but engaging as well.
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.Click Here To Purchase Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Bernard Schaffer
ISBN-10: 1463612214
ISBN-13: 978-1463612214
.Click Here To Purchase Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Bernard Schaffer
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1463612214
ISBN-13: 978-1463612214
Since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s death in 1930, many a hand has taken a turn at re-imagining his most famous creation on radio, film, television, and in literature. Sherlock Holmes has battled Nazis, been thawed out in a cryogenics chamber, and updated to the 21st Century. It’s nothing new for a film or book to focus on Holmes addiction to the “seven percent solution” or have him track down the mysterious Jack the Ripper.
But few of these projects are as disturbing as Bernard Schaffer’s often sordid Whitechapel. For one matter, for ¾ of the story, Sherlock Holmes is primarily a supporting character, a bitter shadow of his former self. This Holmes is an angry cocaine addict who alienates his closest friends and refuses to leave his Baker Street lodgings to assist in the most heinous crime wave in London—the Jack the Ripper murders. Inspector Lestrade—a devotee of police brutality and himself a dabbler in the pleasures of Whitechapel prostitutes—can’t get Holmes to help while he duels with higher-ups more interested in their careers than police work. Even the heroic Dr. John Watson is forced away from his old friend and ends up teaming with the legendary Irene Adler to seek out a killer terrorizing all of London. All of these detectives are haunted by one personal crisis or another, but none are as haunted as one Monty Druitt.
Druitt’s story is the tale of a boy whose childhood is as scarring and depraved as any killer in the making, the victim of child abuse by an insane mother, a boy who witnesses the bloody suicide of his sister, a boy who helps his father cut up corpses in a mortuary. Insanity seems to run in the family and his barbaric propensities are described as graphically as any serial killer’s account in literature. No wonder police and civilians are continually spewing with revulsion at what Monty leaves behind, even in a harsh section of London where filthy poverty and vicious brutality are the order by both day and night.
Not until the final chapters does Holmes break his addiction and join the hunt after Watson and Adler put their lives on the line, Lestrade bloodies a few thuggish vigilantes, and older brother Mycroft stops by to seek a means to break through the clouds in the detective’s soul. As a result, this duel between good and evil isn’t about observational investigation skills but rather a story of redemption, heroes having to fight more than just a nocturnal psychopath, and a culture ill-equipped to deal with crime and its breeding grounds. The conclusion and denouement are filled with surprising twists and pull together the threads in this multi-layered yarn.
This dark book is riveting and gripping for those not faint of heart or are Homes purists. It’s a novel built on considerable historical research, a willingness to describe a hard world for what it was, and a good use of the original Sherlock Holmes canon to attract lovers of the Conan Doyle mythos. Disturbing, yes, but engaging as well.
Your message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
whitechapel.doc
Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled
.Click Here To Purchase Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes