Hardback. SIGNED. 'For over a hundred years, 'the mystery of Jack the Ripper' has been a source of unparalleled fascination and horror, spawning an army of obsessive theorists, and endless volumes purporting finally to reveal the identity of the brutal murderer who terrorised Victorian England. But what if there was never really any 'mystery' at all?What if the Ripper was always hiding in plain sight, deliberately leaving a trail of clues to his identity for anyone who cared to look, while cynically mocking those who were supposedly attempting to bring him to justice?' The author 'exposes the cover-up that enabled one of history's most notorious serial killers to remain at large. More than 12yrs in the writing, this is much more than a radical reinterpretation of the Jack the Ripper legend, and an enthralling hunt for the killer. A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites and institutionalised corruption. Polemic, forensic investigation, panoramic portrait of an age, underpinned by deep scholarship and delivered in Bruce Robinson's inimitably vivid and scabrous prose. An absolutely riveting and unique book, demolishing the theories of generations of self-appointed experts - the so-called 'Ripperologists' - to make clear, at last, who really did it; and more importantly, how he managed to get away with it for so long'. Illus., Appendices, Sources, and Index. 850pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. With tipped-in label SIGNED BY BRUCE ROBINSON. With signs of price sticker removal from top r/hand corner of fr. cover (see image) o/w Vg+ in Vg. dw. Rare SIGNED. A heavy book at 1.4kg with packaging, so will require additional postage.