I’ve been slaving away on my new Ripper book, Whitechapel Confidential, which I’m quite excited about as the follow-up to 2014’s The Bank Holiday Murders. A big part of the book will focus on the myths and mysteries surrounding the murder of Elizabeth Stride in Dutfield’s Yard off Berner Street. Was she a victim of Jack the Ripper? Is it true that she was killed by a knife quite different from that used 45 minutes later on Catherine Eddowes? Could one of the many witnesses have actually been her killer? Did she and her killer really purchase grapes from erstwhile fruitier, Matthew Packer? And what of her brutish one-again-off-again boyfriend, Michael Kidney? What might he have known about his long-time lover’s fate? These and many, many topics will be tackled within the pages of Whitechapel Confidential. And keep an eye here for more to come soon.

Tom