Description:

The story opens fifteen years after the original murders, when Sickert’s apprentice, Robert Wood, is accused of murdering a prostitute in Camden Town and comes to Sickert for help. Believing Wood to be innocent, Sickert agrees to help him and investigates the murder, finding an uncanny similarity to the Ripper’s crimes years before.

Soon he must face the horrible truth: Jack the Ripper may have returned—or, all the more likely, has never left. To save his friend, Sickert must uncover the true villain behind the original killings, following a case more than a decade cold. His search will lead him down an ever-twisting path toward a truth far more terrible than he might ever suspect—or believe!

Excerpt:

Three days have passed since I saw the woman, dead and sprawled naked on her mattress, covered only by her own blood, red like the brightest hue of paint carelessly spilled or splattered upon a canvass. A portrait, perhaps, of a tomato squashed under foot, its juices and innards spread out around it. She had been like that. And now—I couldn’t get the image out of my head.

It was not that I cared for the woman very much at all—I hardly knew her, in fact. She was simply a warm body that passes from port to port in the night. A momentary passion, nothing more—to most men. But I had seen something different in her. Sure, she was pleasing to the eye, thrilling to the touch, and certainly dangerous to behold. That woman was a plague waiting to happen.

Nevertheless, I wanted her. But not the way most men wanted her. They yearned for her body—I lusted for her soul. For she was the epitome of greed and desire—the grim face of a lower class, ever with one foot above the rest, striving for one penny more, never satisfied with what they’ve got. I wanted to make her immortal—so the world would not forget this moment, this place, this circumstance—as though I were placing a marker on time.

I am Walter Richard Sickert. By now, you’ve probably heard all about me. But you should forget these things. As I am not the man you think I am.

I am nobody, but the actor behind the mask. I paint the world as I see it—as it really is. There is no sugar coating here. For it would be a dishonesty not to show you things as they truly are—don’t you think? So this is my promise: I shall never lie. Grim as it may be, you shall only see truth through my eyes.

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