Book recommendations.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Has anyone read this book?

https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/Zero-Baby/dp/139993483X?language=en_GB

I just stumbled across it, but I feel a little disinclined to read anything written by an author called Zero Baby if I'm honest!

Anyone familiar with it?

I have it on Kindle but I haven’t read it yet. I bought it in a moment of boredom induced insanity. All I know is that it appears to theorise that JTR was a woman or a group of women. One of the later chapters is called Covert And Cult Like Lesbianism. I get the impression that the theory is in some way connected to women wanting to train in the medical profession. I might get around to reading it but I wouldn’t waste your hard earned on it Ms D. I’d say that spending the money on a pint would be money better spent. I’ll let you know when I’ve read it. I suspect that it’s complete tripe.

[Ms Diddles]

I have it on Kindle but I haven’t read it yet. I bought it in a moment of boredom induced insanity. All I know is that it appears to theorise that JTR was a woman or a group of women. One of the later chapters is called Covert And Cult Like Lesbianism. I get the impression that the theory is in some way connected to women wanting to train in the medical profession. I might get around to reading it but I wouldn’t waste your hard earned on it Ms D. I’d say that spending the money on a pint would be money better spent. I’ll let you know when I’ve read it. I suspect that it’s complete tripe.

Thanks Herlock!

I will heed your advice.

Another hairbrained half-arsed theory then.

I'm almost tempted to scribe a book myself outlining the groundbreaking aardvark hypothesis, just to see if it would get printed.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Thanks Herlock!

I will heed your advice.

Another hairbrained half-arsed theory then.

I'm almost tempted to scribe a book myself outlining the groundbreaking aardvark hypothesis, just to see if it would get printed.

It’s still more likely than the theory that Cross was the killer though.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I skim read the book that Ms D mentioned as I was on a coach going to London. On the positive side the author retells the basics fairly well but he makes more deductive leaps than a particularly hyperactive kangaroo. Anyway……spoiler alert….the ripper was a female doctor and feminist called Sophie Jex Blake aided by up to three other members of a coterie of man-hating lesbians.

That’s that solved then. Been nice knowing you all.

[Enigma]

That’s that solved then. Been nice knowing you all.

Hiya Herlock, nil desperandum, don't pack it in just yet. Many of us thought the case was solved with your aardvark theory, but months later, here we are still.

A book suggestion on the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. "A Gallant Company - The True Story of the Great Escape" by Jonathon F. Vance. This book gives biographies of all the POWs who passed through the tunnel, particularly the 50 who were murdered by the Gestapo.

https://www.amazon.com/Gallant-Company-Story-Great-Escape/dp/0739442422/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1YCLZI5FOBJBU&keywords=A+Gallant+Company&qid=1698620941&sprefix=a+gallant+company%2Caps%2C339&sr=8-2

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hiya Herlock, nil desperandum, don't pack it in just yet. Many of us thought the case was solved with your aardvark theory, but months later, here we are still.

A book suggestion on the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. "A Gallant Company - The True Story of the Great Escape" by Jonathon F. Vance. This book gives biographies of all the POWs who passed through the tunnel, particularly the 50 who were murdered by the Gestapo.

https://www.amazon.com/Gallant-Company-Story-Great-Escape/dp/0739442422/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1YCLZI5FOBJBU&keywords=A+Gallant+Company&qid=1698620941&sprefix=a+gallant+company%2Caps%2C339&sr=8-2

Thanks for that one. It sounds an interesting read.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Just finished a good one (received as Christmas gift) Marshall Hall: A Law Unto Himself by Sally Smith. A brilliant, well written biography of The Great Defender. Marshall Hall is one of those people that I’d have loved to have seen in real life (like Samuel Johnson) especially speaking in court. Apparently a recording was made of his voice when he appeared in a Dickens radio play but it’s never been found and possibly no longer exists.

Ive just started The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire by Julie Kavanagh. It’s about the Phoenix Park murders.

[c.d.]

Just finished The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman. Non-fiction/true outdoor adventure genre.

Focuses on the lives of two men. One is a sort of hippie/guru/Christ figure who travels to Borneo to live the pure unadulterated life. Taken in by a tribe he eventually leads a worldwide effort to end logging in Borneo. He eventually disappears. Murder by government authorities with so much to gain from logging? Accident? Suicide? The other goes deep, deep into the jungle at great personal risk and hardship to buy Dayak artifacts. Fascinating contrast of the two men. Also a very interesting expose of the worldwide buying and selling of cultural artifacts and how even the most famous and prestigious of galleries and museums just look the other way.

A really fascinating look at the disappearance of one of the last truly wild places on earth and what it represented to two men so totally different in their approach to it.
Really liked this one and definitely recommend.

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Wild-Men-Borneo-Treasure-ebook/dp/B0727TN59S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QG5WBQKX17JU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YVXlucIb53phAT9HYJOu3Lno48ncXcTta6fHXtqXsF9KtKelDb-YEy3hdwd4BvWtTcMOSiqkI-EHGs0n_LeUVSwW7OWgx7aipE4ISD8reS3bCaC3gu-lnJLmR-Nd5a9oWIpb2TkApHoHYTIpMuWbPbhB80h7xbBplaHqaUwmAbMqsgZHJsB4zMCVmMHoW8r2NVokNpH3l8s83sK93mS6zPiT0LTvGjjZ7BApc-RQ8jE.YNXWYeLZd1ZUNrV1tEA59kt_oDPrpvM-6p8rn20Jxdo&dib_tag=se&keywords=last+wild+men+of+borneo&qid=1709845866&sprefix=last+wild+men%2Caps%2C354&sr=8-1

c.d.

[Herlock Sholmes]

There haven’t been many books dedicated to this case but it’s one that gets regular mentions; especially in books, documentaries, blogs and websites focusing on the supernatural. Even Donald McCormick got in on the act with Murder By Witchcraft. I’ve only read 3 books dedicated to the story prior to this one though. First I read 2 slim volumes by a teenager called Alex Merrill with help from his dad Pete which were both excellent and deservedly highly regarded. Then I read MJ Trow’s The Hagley Wood Murder: Nazi Spies and Witchcraft in Wartime Britain, which was a disappointment. I’ve considered a couple of others but the reviews haven’t been encouraging so I was looking forward to the release of The Hagley Wood Tree Murder: Reviewing the Case of Bella in the Wych Elm by Keith Swallow and Rachel Joy. I haven’t been disappointed. This is definitely the book that you want to buy on this case.

This is a well researched and very readable book that covers all aspects of the case. Part One is a detailed chronology of events. Part Two is a detailed analysis of the investigation and the theories and Part Three is the conclusion. The analysis is well done, detailed and sensible. They have clearly gone through all of the police files and everything else written on the case.

I’ve only read of two criticisms of the book. They don’t list their sources and there’s no index. One thing that I do like (and in books in general) is that there are numerous photographs running through the book in the relevant sections which I prefer to a central plate of photographs.

If you want a book on this case this is the one. It’s impossible to label it ‘the last word’ because no doubt there will be others written about he case, but anyone wishing to put out a well researched and well written rundown of the case with sensible conclusions now has a very high benchmark to reach.

Highly Recommended.

[Pcdunn]

Thanks for a great review!

Though not listing their sources does give me pause. Definitely moves it from a scholary book into popular nonfiction (and even those tend to have indexes.)

[Herlock Sholmes]

Thanks for a great review!

Though not listing their sources does give me pause. Definitely moves it from a scholary book into popular nonfiction (and even those tend to have indexes.)

I’ll amend that Pat. It’s not that they don’t quote their sources it’s just that they don’t quote every one. They have clearly done their research though and have gone through all of the available records. There are also quite a few appendices at the back with things like the full Police Case Closure Report which I hadn’t seen before. This certainly isn’t an amateurish effort.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

I’ll amend that Pat. It’s not that they don’t quote their sources it’s just that they don’t quote every one. They have clearly done their research though and have gone through all of the available records. There are also quite a few appendices at the back with things like the full Police Case Closure Report which I hadn’t seen before. This certainly isn’t an amateurish effort.

Cheers for the low down Herlock. I might just give this one a go. I've only ever read about the case in short format, usually as part of a compendium of cases so it'll be good to get an in depth book. I may just pick the Merrill books too.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Cheers for the low down Herlock. I might just give this one a go. I've only ever read about the case in short format, usually as part of a compendium of cases so it'll be good to get an in depth book. I may just pick the Merrill books too.

All three are worth it Al. I don’t know how much the Merrill books are going for these days but I didn’t pay much. If you were choosing I’d definitely go for the new one. Until someone comes up with an aliens theory then I’d say that this one is a hard act to follow.

[Pcdunn]

I’ll amend that Pat. It’s not that they don’t quote their sources it’s just that they don’t quote every one. They have clearly done their research though and have gone through all of the available records. There are also quite a few appendices at the back with things like the full Police Case Closure Report which I hadn’t seen before. This certainly isn’t an amateurish effort.

Ah, okay then! Sounds interesting, certainly.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I just read American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower.

I bought this with a level of confidence that it was going to be good. Stashower wrote one of the best Conan Doyle biographies ever and he also wrote The Beautiful Cigar Girl and The Hour of Peril (about the plot to kill Lincoln before he arrived in Washington to take up office) which were both very good. So with this one he’s written another excellent one.

Its main focus is the career, rise and fall of Eliot Ness with the second have incorporating his quest to find the Cleveland Torso Killer. There’s plenty on his work to nail Al Capone and some interesting stuff on the fight against bootlegging and other organised crime and on Ness’s attempts to weed out corruption from the force. Hoover disliked him, mainly because he disliked anyone who took the spotlight away from him. A man with failings but one who achieved much. In case anyone hasn’t read James Badal’s In The Wake Of The Butcher, which is THE book on the case, I won’t name Ness’s suspect (although most probably know it) To be honest, he’s just about the only suspect, and has to be overwhelmingly the likeliest.

Very good book. If you want a book just on the murders then Badal’s is the one that you want.