The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery

 

The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Now we turn to that unsolved historical mystery, Whitechapel, East End London’s most infamous son, Jack The Ripper. This famed and unidentified serial killer of female sex workers is the primary antagonist in The Sixth Victim: A Constance Piper Mystery by Tessa Harris. This is an effective Historical Mystery which captures time, place, and important themes about the degradation of women in the patriarchal Victorian Era.

Flower seller Constance Piper has to support her family but right now Whitechapel citizens are in fear. The latest victim “Dark” Annie Chapman was found after previous victims, Martha Tabram and Polly Nichols. Every woman walks home in terror and anxiety of the killer that could come out of the shadows to strike. However, Constance has a secret weapon at her disposal. She can communicate with ghosts and has reached the interest of Emily Tindall, a teacher who is concerned about a missing friend and students who have also vanished. Constance and Emily work together to solve these murders and disappearances.

This book captures the setting intricately with both time and place. The Victorian Age revealed a sharp division between rich and poor which is revealed through the contrast between lead characters. 

Emily lives around the middle to upper class while Constance dwells with the working lower class. Emily visits ornate wealthy houses while Constance lives in city slums. Emily's closest circle dines on five course dinners on fancy dishes while Constance’s friends and family face imminent starvation and homelessness. Emily's friends hide marital struggles and family disputes behind closed doors that are protected by status and connections. Constance's friends’ struggles are out for the world to see and are augmented by the lack of concern from those same resources. 

Rich and poor live in separate worlds and the twain does not meet often. However Emily and Constance act as bridges between them. Though Emily's status would be considered wealthy if not comfortable she does not ignore the plight of others. As an educator, she understands the importance of learning and teaches reading to working class women. She helps them realize that they don't have to limit themselves to an impoverished life and they can aspire to a better one. 

Emily recognizes that these women often had very few options which often resulted in domestic violence, alcoholism, addiction, prostitution, and illegitimate pregnancy. By educating them, Emily gives opportunities and options to break the cycles around them.

Constance considers Emily a mentor so their exchanges are full of warmth and support. Constance is the only person in her family that can read and feels like an outsider among her peers whose goals often go as far as their next meal or finding a partner for the night. 

Emily wants to open a shop, leave the East End, and build a comfortable nest egg. One of the more revealing moments is when she is dressed in a nice suit and speaks professionally to a wealthy woman. She surprises herself with her polished refined behavior even as she hides nerves underneath.

Besides the attention to class struggles, this book is adept at recounting the Jack The Ripper case and the overall violent world in which they take place. We are shown the “Canon Five” victims: Polly Nichols, Dark Annie Chapman, Long Lizzie Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly. Kelly's story is particularly heartbreaking as she struggles with an unwanted pregnancy and a troubled common law marriage. 

Harris also offers some speculation. A potential victim is Martha Tabram, who at the time was considered a Ripper victim and even now there's some debate whether she was one or not. There is also the appearance of a headless unidentified female corpse, a real life unsolved mystery at the time that was also attributed to Jack.

The details are there: the notes, the graphic violence, the potential suspects, and the theories. The book plays on speculations and profiles to depict the potential suspects. In depicting them, Harris comments on xenophobia, fear of authority, and dehumanization of different classes. 

Even without the Ripper, there is a dark undercurrent of violence and crime. There is domestic abuse, forced prostitution, child trafficking, and fraudsters posing as mediums. In fact it is during a session with a fake medium when Constance first displays her real clairvoyant abilities. 

It is a mean world where Jack can hide in plain sight because he fits in. It's a world where Victorian moralists lecture others, particularly women, about propriety while at the same time committing violence towards women and maintaining a patriarchal system in which they can't report it.

With The Sixth Victim, Tessa Harris uses the Jack The Ripper murders as a springboard in this dissection of Victorian class division, subjugation of women, and depraved violence. 

The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights

The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Patrick Canning’s The Colonel and The Bee is a throwback to an earlier time of a 19th century Adventure Novel. Pastiches of Victorian Adventures are not unfamiliar with this blog. I reviewed Jon Stephen Jones’ Victorian Adventure Stories and B,G, Hilton’s Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys. Where Jones used familiarity with the Victorian tropes to write stories that echoed them perfectly and Hilton used those tropes to write a novel that brimmed with quirky originality and bizarre goofiness, Canning walks a middle ground. He wrote a novel that presents a fantastic Victorian Adventure with a postmodern darker edge. 

The book is narrated by The Amazing Beatrix, a former acrobat, who instead of running away to join the circus is instead running away from the circus to join something, anything else. She resents the abusive treatment from the circus ringmaster, Ziro so during a private performance for a nobleman, Beatrix makes a dramatic escape to the protection of Colonel James Bacchus, an eccentric treasure hunter with a reputation of daring adventures and romantic escapades. The Colonel takes her into Ox, The Oxford Starladder his floating house (no seriously it’s a four story wicker house attached to a red hot air balloon). She befriends his colleagues, the Newlyweds, obtains a nickname, “Bee” and joins them on their latest hunt for The Blue Star Sphinx. Unfortunately, some dangerous characters are also looking for the Sphinx and the Colonel including an intrepid law enforcement officer and two feuding criminal families. 

The Colonel and The Bee walks a fine and interesting line between the fantastic situations of the past and the rich character development of the present. Canning captures both expertly by giving us realistic characters in a fantastic setting.

What stands out at first is the fantasy, the adventure, the outlandish fantastic tropes of the past. We know realistically that a hot air balloon can’t carry a four story house, but that doesn’t matter. In this book, it does. We know that buried treasure isn’t really found by searching for intricate clues and x doesn’t always mark the spot, but who cares? That’s part of the fun. The Colonel and The Bee opens up those childlike parts of ourselves that read comic books or old adventure novels and imagine ourselves as the characters. Characters like Indiana Jones, The Doctor, Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, James Bond, Nancy Drew, every superhero ever. Characters that we imagine wake up every morning wondering what adventure they will get into today. 

Canning captures that childlike wonder that these stories convey. The adventure is solid with many twists and turns. There are written clues that provide context to the Sphinx and its backstory. We are treated to various locations such as Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Gibraltar, Britain, and The Sahara where The Colonel, Bee, and their allies encounter dangers that require cunning, intelligence, stealth, strength, and daring to survive. It's an adventure that moves at a brisk pace but contains enough plot threads to go into different directions and hold the Reader's interest.This is a light hearted fun adventure for the most part.

While the majority of the book is fun and light, the way that most of these quaint Historical adventures are, there is some depth and attention to character psychology that give this book a postmodern edge. The Colonel and Bee reveal themselves as more than the flashy outlandish exterior that we see at first. 

Bee left behind a lifetime of abuse and degradation at the circus. The maltreatment takes its toll on Bee as despite trusting The Colonel enough to rescue her, she is incredibly cynical and suspicious towards his actions. She had been exploited and used so this is what she expects from people. She for a time is unable to trust The Colonel and suspects the worst from him, particularly because of his history with women. She is looking for an escape out of her situation, maybe some money, but nothing else. 

As she travels with The Colonel and his friends, Bee begins to relate to and bond with them. She sees their vulnerabilities, kindness, and acceptance towards her. Her agility is useful for getting them out of tough situations and her earthy nature provides a nice contrast to The Colonel’s flightiness. As she uses her skills to become a member of the group, she opens up to her new found friends. She also begins to let go of her earlier trauma from her time at the circus even to the point where she even bonds with some of her former colleagues when she recognizes their suffering as well.

Since Bee is the first person narrator, we see her various layers but it takes some time to see The Colonel’s. He lives a seemingly enviable life from land to land, adventure to adventure, and lover to lover. He has a charming flirtatious enthusiastic demeanor. He seems less drawn to search for the Sphinx because of wealth than he is for the thrill and excitement. As the book continues, The Colonel is revealed to have a past and troubles of his own that he hides under his gregarious devil may care personality.

The Colonel reveals that he comes from a very dysfunctional family and this adventure is not just a treasure hunt but a search for some family members. Now, his adventures are seen as means to fill the empty voids in his life. They give him some purpose and significance. He was made to feel like he didn't belong anywhere so he became a citizen of the world. His only real family and friends are those that travel with him on The Ox or aid him on his journeys from the ground. 

The Colonel and Bee move from flashy adventurers looking for treasure, to two lost individuals looking for familial connections. Through their journey, they find both.

 

Weekly Reader: Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys by B.G. Hilton; Steampunk Science Fiction Delivers Crazy Good Fun

 Weekly Reader: Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys by B.G. Hilton; Steampunk Science Fiction Delivers Crazy Good Fun

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: B.G. Hilton's historical fiction novel, Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is sort of what would happen if a Steampunk Convention spilled all over the place. There are top hats, goggles, gears, telescopes, 19th century costumes, early aircraft, submarines, hot air balloons, mad scientists, illusionists, music hall performers, amateur noble detectives, and aliens from the Moon and Jupiter everywhere as far as the eye can read. It's a cornucopia of Victorian Adventure Steampunk fun. It flies off the rails and things get extremely crazy but it's one of the most enjoyable books that I read this year.

Edward "Champagne Charlie" DeCharles is the son of Admiral DeCharles late of the Royal British Navy and his wife, a society matron with a colorful past. On one of his nights out of carousing and drinking, Charlie strikes up a conversation with the hansom cab driver who later that night turns up murdered. Charlie takes it upon himself to investigate the murder.

Meanwhile, "The Amazing" Gladys Dunchurch, a magician's assistant's boss, Abu bin Abdulla, better known by his real name, Gruffydd Pritchard, is missing. It might have something to do with his wand which both Gladys and Gruffydd insist is really magical. 

After that, well, it gets a bit complicated to explain. Just that there are Irish pirates, an insane nobleman who wants to destroy the moon, and space aliens who look like a combination of humans and bats get involved. Charlie and Gladys team up for their separate investigations which actually end up tied together while being caught in the middle of all of this oddball weirdness.

This book is extremely crazy like Hilton wanted to throw as many plot points and tropes into the book to see what sticks. It should be a mess but somehow it works together. The messy convoluted plot adds to the charm and oddity to the book. It echoes the Victorian Adventure Novels of the era so effectively that one could swear it was written then. Remember the books like Around the World in 80 Days, War of the Worlds, Lost World, The OZ books, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are pretty out there. Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys fits right in with those works perfectly.

The book is a great read with a lot of thrilling exciting details. It's the type of book where a priest joins in interrogating a kidnap victim. Sounds like a typical suspense until he flexes his bat wings and you remember what a weird world that you are reading about.

The book is filled with such touches like when an aristocrat monologues about his plan to destroy the moon. Of course logic dictates that would be impossible during the time period. (Not to mention how such a conquest would destroy the lunar cycle, weather, and result in the deaths of billions on Earth.) But evil villains bent on destruction don't exactly think logically about their plans do they? 

Much of the book involves the strangest stories spread during the Victorian Era. For example, the subplot involving Bats and Badgers like aliens actually was inspired by an article which described aliens on the moon that looked like badgers and bats. The article went viral but was later proven to be a forgery. 

Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is written to be the good kind of weird reading where the plot makes it seem like it could have happened in history. You just missed reading about it in school

Part of the reason that the book works so well is the lead characters. Charlie and Gladys have a winning relationship that develops throughout the strangeness. Despite being surrounded by odd plot developments, they are written so believable like these things happen to them all the time. A day flying on an early biplane to face pirates bent on taking Ireland from the English and stopping alien Bats and Badgers from conquering England is just a typical Tuesday for them.

Charlie and Gladys are on opposite sides of the economic scale. Charlie is a titled nobleman surrounded by wealth and privilege. Gladys is an Australian immigrant who would rather work in the Halls than accept the few menial jobs that a poor woman could do in the 19th century such as service. 

The duo get into arguments but build a friendship that builds on their strengths. Charlie may be as much of an upper class twit as Bertie Wooster but like Bertie, he has a large heart. How many aristocrats would go through such trouble to find the murderer of a cab driver? 

Gladys hasn't had as many advantages as Charlie has and they contribute to her cynical mistrustful nature. She has been held back by her illiteracy, but she is a brilliant woman whose sheer gutsiness and observational skill contrast with Charlie's kindness and connections to higher circles.

Refreshingly, Charlie and Gladys do not become a romantic couple. In fact they get involved with other people (both also good characters in their own right). They are more like a brother and sister which adds to their constant teasing but eventually loyal repartee. 

Besides the plot and characters, the theme of illusion plays a strong part in the book adding to the strangeness. Magic and science fiction combine as if they were the same energy, which technically they are. The science aspects are technological in a way that an old novel or sci fi movie are. That's why Gruffydd's wand proves to be necessary to the Bats and ultimately to the mission. Energy is energy and whether it's science or magic works. It's part of the illusion that science can be mistaken for magic and vice versa.

The constant theme of illusion runs throughout the book where no one is what they seem. The Bats and other aliens disguise themselves as typical English citizens, some more successfully than others.  One of the characters was an amateur detective and has settled into upper class respectability. 

As part of his magic career the Welsh Gruffydd assumes the role of a Middle Eastern sorcerer, Abu bin Abdullah. This is no doubt based on William Ellsworth Robinson, a white English stage magician that pretended to be a Chinese sorcerer, Chung Ling Soo, who died onstage during the bullet catching trick (which involved him catching a bullet with his teeth-gee I wonder what went wrong?). 

 Gruffydd hiding his ethnicity and sexuality (he is gay and has clandestine affairs with men) adds to the characters pretending to be something that they are not.

Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is a great book with a bizarre plot, great characters, and a winning theme. Combined these facets make it just like Gladys, amazing.