Monthly Reading Summary – October 2022

It’s been a really really slow reading month this month; just lots of things going on, and I was away seeing family for a week as well. Our book group read for this month was ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ by Grady Hendrix. I also tend to gain a lot of books in October because of my birthday.

Books Read This Month:

Terry Deary – The Peasants’ Revolting Lives ★★★★

• Paperback, 2020, Pen and Sword
• Adult Non-Fiction, History

Beth O’Leary – The Road Trip ★★★

• Paperback, 2021, Quercus Publishing
• Adult Fiction, Chic Lit

Richard Charles Cobb – On the Trail of Jack the Ripper ★★★★

• Paperback, 2022, Pen and Sword
• Adult Non-Fiction, True Crime

Books Bought This Month:

• Phil Roberts – Cardinal Wolsey: For King and Country
• Helen Carr & Suzannah Lipscomb – What is History, Now?
• Grady Hendrix – The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
• Richard Charles Cobb – On the Trail of Jack the Ripper
• Paul Kendall – Queen Elizabeth I: Life and Legacy of the Virgin Queen
• Stephanie Laurens – Foes, Friends, and Lovers
• Stephanie Laurens – The Secrets of Lord Grayson Child
• Shaun Bythell – Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown
• Tom Felton – Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
• Joanne Paul – The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England

Statistics:

• Books Read – 3
• Currently Reading – 4
• TBR – 155

• Fiction – 1 (33.34%)
• Non-Fiction – 2 (66.66%)

• Male Author – 2 (66.66%)
• Female Author – 1 (33.34%)
• Multiple Authors – 0 (0%)

• Paperback – 3 (100%)
• Hardback – 0 (0%)
• eBook – 0 (0%)
• Audiobook – 0 (0%)

• Total Pages Read – 770
• Average Pages Per Book – 256.66
• Hours Listened – 0

• Average Star Rating – 3.66

‘On the Trail of Jack the Ripper’ by Richard Charles Cobb

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction – True Crime

Published: 2022

Format: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

I’ve had a fascination with the Jack the Ripper mystery for years. Well, unsolved mysteries generally which started with the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, and the death of Amy Robsart. But the Jack the Ripper mystery is a lot gorier and more disturbing.

This book discusses the five canonical victims in detail, especially the locations connected with each murder and how they relate to London as it is now. There are lots of helpful maps plotting London as it was in 1888 over the street layout today. The sad thing is that many of the streets and locations have now been lost, many in the last decade or two with building works. I went on a Jack the Ripper tour in Whitechapel last year with a friend and it’s amazing how little actually remains, so those locations that do remain are more significant in a way.

Richard Charles Cobb discusses each of the canonical murders, but also discusses the other Whitechapel murders not always considered to be his work (there were 11 in total in the files). It was really interesting to read some of the newspaper articles, the alleged writing of the Ripper, and police reports and memorandum – words spoken or written at the time. Cobb doesn’t really go into suspects, so I think that might be what I’ll look for in my next book on the Jack the Ripper mystery. I want to know more.

Be aware if you buy this book that there are images of the dead women; including the wounds inflicted on the last canonical victim, which are just horrifying. Some authors I know choose not to show the images in their books or put them in a spread in the middle so you can just jump past them, but these images are set into the text so just a trigger warning, though I imagine if you’re reading a book on Jack the Ripper you might be aware of the images!