Dan Leno & The Limehouse Golem

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, the 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 effortlessly as Dan Leno, king of the music-hall comedians is dragged unwittingly into the investigation of one of London's most notorious murders. When Karl Marx and George Gissing are connected to the same crime the possibilities are endless.

NOW AN UNMISSABLE FILM STARRING BILL NIGHY, DOUGLAS BOOTH AND OLIVIA COOKE.

'Mesmerising, macabre and totally brilliant' Daily Mail

Before the Ripper, fear had another name.

London, 1880. A series of gruesome murders attributed to the mysterious 'Limehouse Golem' strikes fear into the heart of the capital. Inspector John Kildare must track down this brutal serial killer in the damp, dark alleyways of riverside London. But how does Dan Leno, music hall star extraordinaire, find himself implicated in this crime spree, and what does Elizabeth Cree, on trial for the murder of her husband, have to hide?

Peter Ackroyd brings Victorian London to life in all its guts and glory, as we travel from the glamour of the music hall to the slums of the East End, meeting George Gissing and Karl Marx along the way.