Published in 2005 (first published 1913)
224 pages
The English-French author Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947) became world-famous with her many elegant novels and stories in the genre of psychological thrillers, an early “queen of crime.”
What is this book about?
A serial killer calling himself “The Avenger” is prowling the streets of London. But Mr. and Mrs. Bunting has things of a more everyday nature to worry about. Facing the prospect of hard times, they are happy when a gentleman rents the upstairs rooms in their home. Soon, however, they find reasons to believe that this stranger, with his nightly walks and religious rants, is in fact The Avenger, whose preys are prostitutes.
This crime novel from 1913, a classic of the first water, is a retelling of the killing spree conducted by Jack the Ripper. It was the foundation for Alfred Hitchcock’s first masterpiece, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), and have been adapted several other times for movies, theater, TV and radio.
