‘The Candle Man’ by Alex Scarrow

Published by Orion,
12 April 2012.
ISBN: 978-1-4091-0819-1

In the 1880’s the East End of London was a truly dreadful place where poverty and crime flourished. In the autumn of 1888 five brutal murders took place in Whitechapel, the East End’s dark heart. The victims were prostitutes, virtually destitute and addicted to drugs and alcohol. They were savagely hacked, slashed, mutilated and disembowelled. These were only a few of such murders in that place at that time but they became known as the ‘canonical five’. The victims’ names were Mary Ann Nicholls, Annie Chapman, Catherine Eddowes, Elizabeth Stride and Mary Jane Kelly.

The detectives of Scotland Yard put their full powers into the investigation, the records of which provide a fascinating insight into the techniques of the time: forensic analysis of the victims suggested that all the killings were carried out by the ‘same hand’ but that the killer’s profile did not indicate any particular anatomical expertise. There was worldwide media frenzy focussing intensely on the crimes but in spite of that and the police’s efforts the killer was never found. In later years an enormous number of possible but unlikely scenarios have been postulated resulting in what has become known as ‘Ripperology’

The Candle Man offers an ingenious new take on the unsolved mystery. In it, Mary Kelly escapes her fate: she finds a severely wounded man in Argyll Alley in Whitechapel. His wallet is full of cash to which she helps herself before taking him to hospital. Once there it appears he has forgotten who he is; he has an American accent but, other than that, there is no clue as to who he is. Mary picks on a name: John Argyll and begins to fall in love with him and to hope for a better life with him. When he leaves hospital, rather than take him to her own squalid lodgings, she brings him to a house in exclusive Holland Park where she once worked: the family away, they settle in, and she tells Argyll that they are married and that it was their home. Soon they will emigrate to the United States.

A parallel narrative focuses on events beginning two months earlier when we follow the stories of the other victims which are entangled with a mysterious web of conspirators who, in order to hide a dark secret which could strike at the heart of the establishment, arrange for the contract killing of a young French woman and her baby. That killing leads to the risk of discovery for the conspirators, and they consequently hire an American hitman to kill all those who know of the killings and in particular who know of a photograph of the Royal family member who is the baby’s father, the killings to be carried out in such a way that they appear to be the work of a homicidal maniac. Are the wounded American rescued by Mary Kelly, apparently gentle and incapable of violence, and the ruthless American killer one and the same?

The Candle Man is an interesting and complex contribution to the Ripper mythology.
-----
Reviewer: Radmila May

Alex Scarrow was born in 1966. He used to be a rock guitarist, then he became a graphic artist, then he decided to be a computer games designer. Finally, he grew up and became an author. He has written a number of successful thrillers and several screenplays, but it's YA fiction that has allowed him to really have fun with the ideas and concepts he was playing around with when designing games. His most recent series features DCI Boyd. There are seven books in the series, He lives in Norwich with his son, Jacob, and his wife, Frances.