A Year of Three Eights

As most of my readers know (all five of you *grin*), I am a bookaholic. Not a book snob, I will read most anything - once. My favorite reads are "whodunits", the likes of Sherlock, Miss Jane Marple, Perry Mason, or Kay Scarpetta. Several years ago I became an addicted reader of true crime novels about modern day psychopaths like the Zodiac Killer or Charlie Manson. ( I could tell you my own version of a panicked shower scene ala Psycho, when I was just pregnant with my oldest daughter. I had been reading Helter Skelter in the house alone, decided to take a shower, and my first husband thought it would be fun to jerk the shower curtain back and growl. I think I stopped screaming about 30 minutes later, but it took even longer for him to clear his eyes from the soapy washcloth slap.)

Lately, I have been reading "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" by Pamela West. Almost finished, and I can tell that the story will end with the finger pointing at the Royal Family and Prince "Eddy". The little happenstance book has embarked me on a quest to fill my bookshelves with more tomes about this infamous killer. (Don't you just love the used book option at Amazon?)

I had read a little in the past about the White Chapel murders of 1888, but hadn't chanced upon a book about them in a while. The Ripper story was picked up during one of my Friends of the Library sales and plucked out of the box for reading just recently. What really spikes my interest is that the case has never been solved.

Now, if I could only find my deerstalker and meershaum pipe, I could really play detective. Anybody out there a real Ripperologist? (And, yes, I am a CSI fan - the genesis series. Last night's show was especially good, "Who Shot Sherlock?".

* I did find this little fun site, but disappointed that you have to purchase the fonts. I was planning on penning this post in Ripper style, but I am a cheapskate.