The Trial of Elizabeth Cree

"Here we are again!" - these are the last words of Elizabeth Cree and primary character of the book and over time we will find how true these words are. I have never read any book by Ackroyd before but the first experience was pleasantly surprising. Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem is a neat little book which can be praised in the best possible fashion. We will find as history repeats itself through generations and through the acts of the generation it's like a play being reenacted.I found the book in a garage sale and was thrown back a little by the picture in the cover but once I started reading it then there was no stopping. The author must have done enormous studies on Victorian London - the environment, the pulse of the society and the characters in that society.Actually from the very beginning (or something close to it) we already know the villain, the motive but still there are some details left in the painting which forces the reader to keep on reading. The few primary characters in the book are Dan Leno, Elizabeth Cree her husband John Cree and well well well Karl Marx, George Gissing (quite a mix and range). The author effortlessly travels from one decade to another or from one year to another but strangely as a reader you never lose track of time. His descriptions of London in the 1880s are as good as it can get. If you get a chance read this book and you will love it. --This text refers to the edition

I thought this book was fantastic! What it didn't have in suspense (You find out who the murderer is very early on) it made up for in rich period detail. And for once, here is a book about Victorian times that doesn't exaggerate the subject up to the hilt. The nature of the murders also made it positively scary.

peter ackroyds novel 'the trial of elizabet cree is a splendid recreation of the foggy and seedy side of life in victorian london. ackroyd manages to conjure up a world and time somewhat removed from the times we live in now. yet it is this point that allows the reader the neccessry distane to observe this stange world with open eyes. hence we are able to decipher their wierd behavior. the book is strong in all areas. well written and believable, ackroyd seamlessly incorporates real life figures into the narrative such as karl marx. his evocation of vaudeville exemplifies what ackroyd is aiming for. its a place inhabited by men and women who seem as if they just stepped into the world right from a deeply dark and often disturbing caberet. despite the grim subject matter the story and the characters, many who possess faults, are imbued with a peculiar sense of jocularity. its a wonderfully colorful book that is at once dark and tasty. in my mind it is a masterpiece and should hold up mightily on repeated visits.

An excellent twisting novel that leads the reader further in to understand the depths of the characters minds. I loved the academic references and the almost parallel stories that work in partnership. I will have to read it again..soon

Dan Leno was variety hall entertainer in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Limehouse Golem is a serial killer along the lines of Jack the Ripper. Around these two poles Ackroyd has spun a story of an abused girl who is taken under Leno's wing and after a successful career on the stage, marries and then murders her journalist admirer. The story is a meditation on the links between murder and entertaining the popular imagination, on revenge and pride. The book takes a little while to get a grip on, consisting as it does of several different narratives, but halfway through it shifts down a gear and really takes off.