Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem

Author	Peter Ackroyd
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Sinclair-Stevenson
Publication date	1994
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	282 pp
ISBN	1856195074
Preceded by	The House of Doctor Dee
Followed by	Blake

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem is a 1994 novel by the English author Peter Ackroyd.^[1] It is a murder mystery framed within a story featuring real historical characters, and set in a recreation of Victorian London.^[2]

Plot summary

As Elizabeth Cree sits every day in a courtroom, on trial for the murder of her husband, the story moves from courthouse to music hall to the back alleys of Limehouse, a notorious district of Victorian London, teeming with the poorest of the poor, the most violent of criminals and helpless preyed-upon immigrants, following the trail of slaughter laid by the Golem, an almost mythical predecessor of Jack the Ripper. Fact and fiction blend as Dan Leno, king of the music-hall comedians, is dragged unwittingly into the investigation of some of London’s most notorious murders. Karl Marx and George Gissing are connected to the same crimes.

Reception

A review in The Independent on Sunday declared that "Ackroyd has pulled off the greatest coup of all, a foursquare crime novel as aesthetically pleasing as it is morally shocking". A review in The Observer called the novel "a flawlessly good read".^[3][4]

Film adaptation

In 2015 it was announced that a film adaptation based on the book was planned, starring Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy and Douglas Booth, with a script written by Jane Goldman, to be directed by Juan Carlos Medina. Lionsgate hoped to release the film in the UK and Ireland.

References