A while back I
went on a lengthy tirade against the Edgar Awards and Agathas, lamenting
how far they have sunk and how they have become little more than a reflection
of bestseller lists. It was a controversial
post, generating more comments than any other post in the history of this
blog. Out of all these comments, one I remembered particularly recommended
Lyndsay Faye’s Dust and Shadow, a
Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper yarn. This came about because Faye had been
nominated for Best Novel for The Gods of
Gotham.
I generally stay away from Holmes vs. the Ripper novels. It’s
a tired idea with little novelty behind it, and it seems that every other such
book concludes that the Ripper murders were the result of a ridiculous
conspiracy centered around Prince Albert Victor. This is based on a highly
flawed idea proposed by Stephen Knight in Jack
the Ripper: The Final Solution, but it somehow has gotten to be the most
popular theory in the realm of fiction. I don’t get it – I thought it was a
stupid solution the first time I heard it, and when I recently read up on the
Ripper case I found out just how stupid a solution it really is.
