Mrs. Bonting manages to keep up appearances, but little more than that, these days. Though Mr. Bonting is unhappy over the idea of letting rooms, it seems an answer to a prayer when a peculiar young man named Mr. Slade rents both a room and the attic. He even pays 20 pounds in advance. But he is peculiar. He claims to be conducting scientific experiments, which is supposed to explain why he is out at all hours and why he can be found in the attic burning things. His antipathy toward actresses is particularly strange. The walls of his room have paintings of actresses, and the first thing he does is turn them all to the wall. Mrs. Bonting's niece, a music-hall actress, lives with them. None of this would seem particularly alarming. But Jack the Ripper is on the loose. And all his victims are connected in some way to the stage. And no one knows who he is.
—J. Spurlin