Sure and Certain Death

September 20, 2010
Set in early 1941, Nadel's unremarkable fourth Francis Hancock mystery (after 2008's Ashes to Ashes) involves yet another search for a latter-day Jack the Ripper. Hancock, a 48-year-old undertaker and Great War veteran, happens on the mutilated corpse of Nellie Martin in a ruined house in London's bomb-ravaged East End. Even before a second victim turns up, rumors swirl that the Ripper has returned, despite the half-century that has passed since the 1888 autumn of terror. Hancock eventually learns that each of the women had been a White Feather girl who confronted able-bodied men seen out of uniform during WWI and presented them with white feathers as a symbol of cowardice. He's unsettled to discover that his older sister also participated in the movement. A less than compelling whodunit plot and a hero whose torment over his war experiences appears commonplace compared to that of, say, Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge make this a routine read.