#129 : Jack the Theorist - John Hartless (WIth Giveaway & Guest Post)

Only one man dares to confront the meaning behind the crimes. Only one man sees through the tangled skin to the truth. Only one man knows the answers.
Or, at least, only one man thinks he knows the answers... Follow Professor Wolf, the world’s first Ripperologist, on his delusional journey into the world of the Ripper. Follow his long-suffering friend, Sir Arthur Smythe, who suspects that it will all end in tears.
Gasp at the revelations. Tremble at the truth. Wonder at the sanity of a mind that leaps from conspiracy to conspiracy without ever touching reality.

Kindle Edition: 152 KB
Publisher: Vagabondage Press LLC
ASIN: B005H82HG0
Purchase at Amazon by clicking the link on the photo.

©2011


My Opinion:
Interesting, to say the least.
I enjoyed the theories, and how they flowed within the story.
Sherlock Holmes fans will like this a lot.

4/5

Recommend? Yes



~I received a digital copy from Vagabondage Press. I was not compensated for my opinion.~

Please give a really warm welcome to author, Jon Hartless. He wrote the novella, Jack the Theorist. Please visit his book website, (just click the title), and come back and tell me if you read the excerpt. What did you think?

In The Words Of Jon;
Labeling my work is not something I tend to think about much. Apart from a rather vague notion that the story I’m working on is, say, sci-fi or steampunk, that is about it. I just don’t think about it, I simply write it.
This happened with my novella, Jack the Theorist. I read some of the theories on Jack the Ripper and came to the conclusion that most are pure bunkum. How anyone can believe the drivel they have produced on the identity and motive of the killer is beyond me, and this made me wonder if the writers did actually believe their own theories. After all, when you start claiming the Duke of Clarence was the murderer, based on a vague and rambling story, later retracted, you do begin to question the research and morality of the ripperologists.
As such, I was inspired to write a story in which an overenthusiastic proto-ripperologist begins to investigate the murders as they happen. At first, it is little more than a new sideline to him. Then it becomes a nice little earner. Then it becomes a big earner and the man is lost in a labyrinth of self deception in which any theory, no matter how ridiculous, is held up as the ultimate truth, at least until the next theory comes along.
In doing so, I was conscious of nothing more than creating a darkly humorous work of fiction. It took the publisher, Vagabondage Press, to put the obvious label on it and define it as satire. Which the work undoubtedly is. It is just odd that I never saw that as I was writing it.
So, I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the publisher for not only accepting the work, but for marketing it in a way that would be beyond me. After all, if even the writer doesn’t have a clear idea of what the story is, how can the reader be guided toward it?
Jack the Theorist is out now, published at Vagabondage Press, and is available from their website.


AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:
Thanks to Jon, I have 5 digital copies up for grabs! You can get PDF, MOBI or EPUB.
Fill in the Rafflecopter form to enter.