Loosely based on the Jimmy Sangster screenplay of the Joseph E. Levine distributed 1959 film of the same name, Jack the Ripper is Stuart James attempt to turn a pretty standard and somewhat gimmicky (some theaters showed the bloody climax of the black-and-white film in vivid color) exploitation horror film into a decent novel. Using the original screenplay as more of an outline, Stuart James injects considerably more character, plot, and even blood - the source film doesn't even feature any dead prostitutes - into this re-imagining of the Jack the Ripper legend. Like most books/films based on this subject matter, the main focus is on explaining who the legendary mystery murderer really was, and the explanation offered here isn't the most compelling or outlandish you're likely to find, although the answer to what happened to him is probably the most unique aspect of the book. What sets this apart from all of the other Jack the Ripper books out there is Stuart James' natural abilities at storytelling and creating an atmosphere that practically drips with blood and fog. If you've already read ten or twenty different "accounts" of Jack the Ripper, and odds are you have, then adding this one to your list of conquered titles won't do any harm, especially since this edition also includes an Afterword detailing the film origins of the novel. ( )