Tatterdemalion

The Scott Carson Saga, Book 1

By: Robert Crawford

Narrated by: Tracie Frank

1888. Jack the Ripper, the first modern serial killer, has paralyzed London from the East End’s squalid alleys to the gilded halls of Buckingham Palace. Four women have been butchered with a savage sophistication never before seen. Saucy Jack’s a new breed of criminal for which Scotland Yard has no solution.

Frustrated, Inspector Frederick Abberline requests the Crown’s permission to assemble a team outside the City’s constabularies. Troubled by whispers of the Prince’s involvement, the Queen tacitly consents to Abberline's plan.

They are: Buffalo Bill Cody; sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Frank Butler; Sitting Bull, tracker and shaman; A rising literary star named Arthur Conan-Doyle; A young psychoanalyst named Sigmund Freud and our narrator, Scott Carson, a pioneering cameraman.

Each of these celebrities and experts has much to lose and gain- Cody cuts short his tour to save his reputation and financial fortunes when one of his Indian performers is advanced as the Whitechapel Murderer; The feminist Annie Oakley because she’s outraged over women being murdered with impunity; Freud advances a profile that may unmask the killer; Doyle pits his mind against that of his new hero, Sherlock Holmes; The reputation of Abberline, watched distantly but closely, is at stake; And narrating from his worm's eye view, Carson is desperate to prove the efficacy of his craft.

Yet as the body count rises and several in the team are targeted by the Ripper, before the harrowing conclusion their investigation becomes personal as each finds a more profound motivation to stop the most horrific series of murders of the 1800s.

©2021 Robert Crawford (P)2023 Robert Crawford

Brilliant

This story is compelling and lively and will stay with me for a long time!