E-books/audiobooks: non-fiction
Patricia Cornwell may love writing crime fiction but she is also obsessed with a real killer: Jack the Ripper. So much so that for 12 years she has been defending her identification of the murderer behind a string of homicides in 19th-century London.
by Patricia Cornwell
Thomas & Mercer
(e-book)
Patricia Cornwell may love writing crime fiction but she is also obsessed with a real killer: Jack the Ripper. So much so that for 12 years she has been defending her identification of the murderer behind a string of homicides in 19th-century London. In Chasing the Ripper, Cornwell provides further evidence the culprit was British artist Walter Sickert, whom she fingered in Portrait of a Killer (2002). It wasn’t until 2012, she writes, that forensically processed photographs of a crime scene revealed stains on the wall behind the bedstead. Were they “morbid art painted with Mary Kelly’s blood”, she wonders. This Kindle single allows Cornwell to answer her critics, some of whom have accused her of destroying a Sickert painting in the name of science. While rubbishing the claim, she vows she would not hesitate to do so if that was the only way to solve a crime. Cornwell also makes much of watermarks (letters the Ripper sent to the police match paper used by Sickert). It’s not enough to be a Cornwell fan to read this book. You need to be a Ripperologist.
by Noni Gove
Partridge
(e-book)
Off Your Rocker purports to have been written for "mature travellers on a budget" but it's not a book that will be of much use to my parents. That's not because of their age (nearing 80): they're just not the type who will travel without having booked accommodation; keep in touch via Skype on an iPad; or remember to take a USB containing all their medical history. The volume, filled with stories and point-form advice is really for people new to exploring the world, comfortable with basic technology (buying a local SIM card won't throw them), and who can see the beauty of doing volunteer work as a means of experiencing a culture. Noni Gove, who is in her late 70s and runs a massage clinic in Sydney, Australia, has visited more than 60 countries since catching the travel bug at 51. With Lonely Planet books as her guide, she seeks out adventure, carrying a photo album of family and friends to use as ice breakers. Most useful are her reminders of what to pack (a spare pair of specs); how to stay healthy and what to record in your journal (the medication you took).