Bijou's Full Review: Kenneth Cameron - The Frightened Man
Enamored with the mythology and hype of the notorious Jack the Ripper, I elected to read Kenneth Cameron's recently published fictional tale The Frightened Man which promised to deliver a story about an early twentieth century murder that could have been committed by Jack himself. While Cameron's novel does deliver some fascinating background about London in 1900, I felt that the story failed to captivate my attention as much as I had anticipated.
The story centers around the exploits of General Denton, an American living in London who once was a sherriff back in the States. Denton's goal is to live a life without the notoriety of his past (having shot a few men during his law enforcement stint), so he currently writes novels and has found success in doing so. However, Denton lacks inspiration as he composes his new novel, and he--along with his male attendant, Atkins--is worried about finances. Suddenly, along comes a break in Denton's malaise: a frightened visitor, Mr. Mulcahy, who confesses to Denton that he (Mulcahy) has seen the infamous Jack the Ripper on the streets. Denton expresses his disbelief at Mulcahy's odd story that he had once, in fact, known the killer when they were both younger boys. Yet, soon after Mulcahy's odd visit and confession that he'd witnessed Jack murdering a woman in the past, Denton learns that a young London prostitute named Stella Minter has been found dead and mutilated.
Denton's detective work fuels the plot, as he spends time trying to navigate the seedy underbelly of early twentieth century London to find answers concerning Stella's death. Through Denton's investigation, readers get a glimpse into shoddy "workhouses" in which pregnant, unmarried women toiled away, washing the linens from upscale eateries in the area. The dingy, dark alleys and prostitutes' residences evoke a sense of loss, despair, and anonymity that allow people like Jack the Ripper to take lives without much care or consequence. I appreciated the historical description in the novel; mention of events such as Oscar Wilde's death and Sherlock Holmes lend a sense of authenticity to the narrative. Yet the storytelling is not stodgy or uninteresting--the reader can imagine these events, and the Denton character, inhabiting a modern tale.
As Denton probes into Stella's murder, he befriends an unlikely sidekick--Mrs. Janet Striker, a stern widow who is known more for killing her now-deceased husband than for her charitable work. Striker's experience helping prostitutes find jobs, homes, and life off of the streets proves invaluable to Denton as he attempts to find Stella's murderer and the whereabouts of the missing Mulcahy. Striker's character is believable and readers may empathize with her difficult past, which has shaped her into the distrustful, hard-edged feminist that she is when she meets Denton. Still, even with Denton's loneliness (he is "dumped" by a socialite early in the novel), the subtle attraction between the severe Mrs. Striker and the displaced American Denton comes across as manufactured.
Fortunately, the plot concentrates on Denton as he pieces together clues concerning Stella's death and Mulcahy's admission that he watched, voyeuristically, as "Jack" murdered a woman during a sexual act. This novel grazes over sensational detail and is not interested in describing gore simply to titillate the reader. In fact, when Stella's post-mortem exam is taking place, Denton remarks on the all-male faces peering down on her naked, mutilated body. He is disturbed by how their faces appear, as though they are watching something exciting but are trying to disguise their interest in it.
Overall, the novel plays out in a predictable fashion (the climax concerning who killed Stella Minter is completely unclimactic). There are pages describing Denton climbing into the window (via a steep roof scaling) that seem to read on and on; there are too many of Denton's ruminations concerning his former wife (who committed suicide), his manservant Atkins, and his general lament of the darkness of the human condition. Action in this novel occurs sporadically, and lengthy descriptions do not lend themselves naturally to suspense, per se. Yet there is an interesting social commentary at work, here. Perhaps if the audience is seeking literary entertainment via a fictional slasher, a serial killer, or a grisly murder scene--well, then maybe the audience is as bad as Denton thinks it can be. Social mores and dictates aside, The Frightened Man is a story of a pair's determination to find out the truth when corruption, laziness, and apathy would prefer to set it aside.
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