Title: A Head for Murder
Author: Keith Moray
In: The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories (Maxim Jakubowski)
Rating Out of 5: 2.5 (Readable, but not worth reading again)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Historical fiction
Dates read: 11th September 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: Who better, the prince has reasoned, than the greatest batsman of his day to save the day.
A group of gentlemen gather to play cricket and discuss their passions. But does one of them have a head for murder?
This story felt so very, very British. After all, it starts off with the cricket whites and a bunch of gentlemen playing the age-old sport. Just something which is far too English to be ignored… and then it jumps over into the realm of Jack the Ripper and things get really intense really quickly.
I’ll admit, while I was reading this story, I wasn’t really paying attention. But I gave it a low score because even though I wasn’t paying attention, it also didn’t draw me in at all. As I’m trying to write this review, I just have these vague recollections of moments throughout the tale. Nothing obvious and concrete… all just very… vague.
From my hazy memory of this tale, I remember that Jack the Ripper was moving in more privileged circles… I liked that it took this spin. Most of the other stories thus far in the The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories collection have taken more of a working-class angle to the killer or the telling of his choices. This, instead made it sound as though he was of a higher class and far removed from the realities of the victims who he butchered.
Earth and Skye 
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