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Hello all,
about two years ago I was in here, looking for info and good titles on Jack the Ripper, as I was planning to write a novel about the murders in Whitechapel, with a nice twist at the end. The book is finished and has been successfully published in The Netherlands (see a few reviews below).
Julia’s Shadow
London, 1888. Seventeen year old Julia lives in Whitechapel, the overpopulated and poverty-stricken area in the East End, after having been turned out by the plush brothel she was sold to as a child. She had become too tall for the tastes of the wealthy clients, who preferred molesting young girls. In Whitechapel she attempts to build a new life, trying not to end up as a prostitute again. Because of her years in the brothel and her traumatic experiences there, her connection with the world around her, and even with herself, has been severely damaged. Escaping from her past proves to be an impossibility. There is hardly any work, the man she lives with out of sheer necessity has a habit of abusing her, and then there are the mysterious murders: women are being murdered and mutilated with a knife in the middle of the night, and sometimes even in the middle of the street, by an elusive serial killer who calls himself ‘Jack the Ripper’, holding sway over the city’s fears. The police don’t have a single clue, as nobody seems to have seen or heard a thing. Jack appears to be an untraceable shadow.
When Julia starts hearing voices and footfalls, she dismisses it as signs of exhaustion and malnutrition. But her delusions gradually worsen, until she finds she is losing memories, does things without any knowledge of them, and finds herself in all sorts of situations without understanding how she got there. She knows something is terribly wrong, and if she wants to survive these dangerous times she will need answers to very old questions. What happened to her mother? Why did she leave? Could mother still be alive? The only person who can help her is the one woman Julia hoped to never meet again: her aunt, who sold her to the brothel when she was still so very young.
Julia, haunted by her own madness and her desperate desire to leave this terrible city, feels herself losing grip on reality – and senses that Jack seems to be getting closer…
Reviews:
"A skillfully written historic novel about Jack the Ripper's London. [...] The ending puts a whole new perspective on the matter of Jack the Ripper."
Vrij Nederland Detective & Thriller Guide
"Gripping historic novel, in which the author creates a very life like London of 1888, and shows how evil can grow in extreme circumstances, all the while cleverly deluding her readers, making the ending a complete surprise."
Nederlands Dagblad
"The main character, Julia, is a very good, strong fictional character and her mental disorders are described in a compellingly frightening and oppressing manner. [...] The author calls her novel a 'dark story'. She is right: an ominous feeling kept buzzing on after finishing the book."
Reformatorisch Dagblad
If anybody's Dutch is any good, here's an interview in a national newspaper about the book: http://www.uitgeverijmozaiek.nl/down...10juni2009.pdf
As you can see, the book is doing well in The Netherlands, but as the world of Ripperologists is an English-speaking world, I would love to find a British/American publisher who might be interested in putting out a translated version of this story, because I really believe in this book and the need to have the story told from this point of view to an audience that is always interested in hearing a fresh take on Jack. This is my third novel; my first, about Erasmus, got translated in Germany.
My publisher is Beppie de Rooij at Uitgeverij Mozaiek in Zoetermeer (http://www.uitgeverijmozaiek.nl/), but you can also mail me at mollymoonsoo@gmail.com
Hoping for speedy replies and wishing all of you happy huntings where Jack is concerned,
Ines van Bokhoven
about two years ago I was in here, looking for info and good titles on Jack the Ripper, as I was planning to write a novel about the murders in Whitechapel, with a nice twist at the end. The book is finished and has been successfully published in The Netherlands (see a few reviews below).
Julia’s Shadow
London, 1888. Seventeen year old Julia lives in Whitechapel, the overpopulated and poverty-stricken area in the East End, after having been turned out by the plush brothel she was sold to as a child. She had become too tall for the tastes of the wealthy clients, who preferred molesting young girls. In Whitechapel she attempts to build a new life, trying not to end up as a prostitute again. Because of her years in the brothel and her traumatic experiences there, her connection with the world around her, and even with herself, has been severely damaged. Escaping from her past proves to be an impossibility. There is hardly any work, the man she lives with out of sheer necessity has a habit of abusing her, and then there are the mysterious murders: women are being murdered and mutilated with a knife in the middle of the night, and sometimes even in the middle of the street, by an elusive serial killer who calls himself ‘Jack the Ripper’, holding sway over the city’s fears. The police don’t have a single clue, as nobody seems to have seen or heard a thing. Jack appears to be an untraceable shadow.
When Julia starts hearing voices and footfalls, she dismisses it as signs of exhaustion and malnutrition. But her delusions gradually worsen, until she finds she is losing memories, does things without any knowledge of them, and finds herself in all sorts of situations without understanding how she got there. She knows something is terribly wrong, and if she wants to survive these dangerous times she will need answers to very old questions. What happened to her mother? Why did she leave? Could mother still be alive? The only person who can help her is the one woman Julia hoped to never meet again: her aunt, who sold her to the brothel when she was still so very young.
Julia, haunted by her own madness and her desperate desire to leave this terrible city, feels herself losing grip on reality – and senses that Jack seems to be getting closer…
Reviews:
"A skillfully written historic novel about Jack the Ripper's London. [...] The ending puts a whole new perspective on the matter of Jack the Ripper."
Vrij Nederland Detective & Thriller Guide
"Gripping historic novel, in which the author creates a very life like London of 1888, and shows how evil can grow in extreme circumstances, all the while cleverly deluding her readers, making the ending a complete surprise."
Nederlands Dagblad
"The main character, Julia, is a very good, strong fictional character and her mental disorders are described in a compellingly frightening and oppressing manner. [...] The author calls her novel a 'dark story'. She is right: an ominous feeling kept buzzing on after finishing the book."
Reformatorisch Dagblad
If anybody's Dutch is any good, here's an interview in a national newspaper about the book: http://www.uitgeverijmozaiek.nl/down...10juni2009.pdf
As you can see, the book is doing well in The Netherlands, but as the world of Ripperologists is an English-speaking world, I would love to find a British/American publisher who might be interested in putting out a translated version of this story, because I really believe in this book and the need to have the story told from this point of view to an audience that is always interested in hearing a fresh take on Jack. This is my third novel; my first, about Erasmus, got translated in Germany.
My publisher is Beppie de Rooij at Uitgeverij Mozaiek in Zoetermeer (http://www.uitgeverijmozaiek.nl/), but you can also mail me at mollymoonsoo@gmail.com
Hoping for speedy replies and wishing all of you happy huntings where Jack is concerned,
Ines van Bokhoven