MAYHEM, MAGIC AND JACK THE RIPPER

I am a strong believer in bargain basements, as you probably already know. I am the same with books; you will often find me scanning the bookshelves marked ``two for the price of one`` with an intent expression trying to work out if there is a bargain to be found in there somewhere. I often do this at airports. It passes the time, there are often special ``airport editions`` to books otherwise only available in hardcover and well… Everyone loves a bargain. This is how I came to pick up Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough and came to discover a new writer and series that will no doubt afford me hours of enjoyment. You see I love fantasy and magic in my books. I also love crime. But if I come across a successful combination of the two… Well that is by far the best… J

Dr Thomas Bond is a normal police surgeon living in abnormal times. It is London, the year is 1888 and that mysterious killer called Jack the Ripper is prowling the streets of Whitechapel. Dr Bond is known for his success and ability in such cases and thus starts working on the case when another series of murders starts taking place in Whitechapel. Bodies, brutally mutilated, missing limbs and internal organs, more brutal than the Ripper has ever been… But why are there suddenly so many predators prowling the streets of London? And more importantly are they the real problem or the symptoms of something, much, much worse to come…  

I really loved the way this story wove the strands of the story together. Of course, thanks to television and DVDs, we are no strangers to the concept of merging crime as a genre with fantasy. Neither are we unfamiliar with the concept of an everyman brought face to face with a gang of supernatural crime fighters and villains who turn out to be bona fide monsters. So in a sense, Pinborough has taken on a rather daunting task – not only must she write an example of a genre tried and tested multiple times, thus creating very fixed expectations in the fans, she must also somehow achieve the same effect without the aid of special effects and on screen ``magic`` that makes it that much easier to suspend disbelief and dive straight in.

This has largely been achieved by structuring the novel pretty much in the same way one might structure a TV series. Every chapter is narrated by a different character, you know, in the same way the camera follows first one character and then another in those series where we have multiple heroes and heroines. Of course, here (as in most such narratives), we have one main protagonist, but we have a quite a few secondary characters knocking about who get a good dose of ``page time`` too. The flip of perspective is most refreshing and gives, in my opinion, a much more all-rounded sense of where the story is going. The other thing is that of course the setting is 19^th century London. Opium dens are ``all the rage`` and suffice to say that said dens play quite large parts in our story. Not only does the way the story flits from character to character at some point begin to resemble those rambling dreams brought on by the drug and so aptly described in the book, it also adds a completely new dimension to the character of Dr Bond, who is the ``hero`` of the book and at the same time, a bona fide opium addict. This makes him a bit of an anti-hero in a way, as Pinborough makes a very, very good job of describing his mental process as the addiction takes a firmer and firmer hold – and that in itself is an interesting portrait. But on the other hand, it also adds a dreamlike quality to everything Bond experiences, adding another dimension to his disbelief. I mean, I need to add that a lot of the other, secondary characters are not exactly painted in black or white either. There are a lot of greys, a lot of unusual traits and questionable attributes… But then again, that`s a bit like real life I suppose. The ``good guys`` often have their own scars and crosses to bear, and may not seem as ``snow white`` as prime time TV would have us believe.  

Another thing I admired in the book was the mastery with which the true stories of the epoch were mixed with fiction. Jack the Ripper enthusiasts will find it interesting reading in parts, possibly not because they will discover a lot of new information, but because Jack prowls the pages of the book along with our own killer, as large as life, and if the information about him is not new (because in truth, unless some historical artefact is unearthed, I don`t see how there could be any new info on him at the moment,)it is very well redacted and very well melded with the fantasy world of Dr Bond and Mayhem.

In short Mayhem is a sensitively written book where reality and fantasy collide to form some truly breath-taking results. It`s the kind of book that would make you miss your stop on the tube. Just sayin`. J