Louisiana Blood

Louisiana Blood mixes genres in a truly original manner. One moment you're plunged into the grimy world of Jack the Rippers London streets, the next you're running for your life through burning swamps. It's a thriller, and a love story spanning two continents and time frames. The characters are beautifully fleshed out and you are immediately invested in them and rooting for them to bring down the evil Governor who, along with his ancestors lie at the heart of the Ripper conspiracy. A great read that draws you in and never lets go!Forget everything you know about Jack the Ripper - he never existed. His story was merely a shady cover up cloaking one of the biggest conspiracies of the 19th century. Mike Donald's story brilliantly blends the dank streets of Victorian London with the vibrancy and heat of the modern day Louisiana swampland to craft a tale that is both thrilling and believable. Oil money, voodoo, murder, medical experiments and a world striding conspiracy all combine to make Louisiana Blood an epic mystery thriller wrapped in a shroud of alternate history unlike anything you've ever read.I received a copy of Louisiana Blood as a supporter of the project during its campaign on Inkshares and it isn't the type of novel I would normally gravitate towards on any bookshelf because I am a coward. However, it's a great take on the Jack the Ripper murders and I am glad to have read it!Lousiana Blood spans three generations in an attempt to solve the Jack the Ripper murders. It covers the events surrounding them up through present day where a London Metropolitan Police detective, Chandler Travis, has inherited a legacy of trying to solve the brutal killings. The hunt takes him to Louisiana where some corpses from around the same time period are discovered in a swamp. It is here that he teams up with a local Deputy Sheriff, Duke Lanoix, to find the connection between the bodies in Louisiana are connected to the Whitechapel murders.As someone whose knowledge of Jack the Ripper is consigned to the realm of popular culture, the theory presented in Louisiana Blood was completely new to me. I think, too, that a mark of a well-written novel is that once I had finished it, I was immediately doing Internet searches to find out where Mike Donald's theory fits into the conspiracy canon. You can imagine my delight to discover that Mr Donald uses many of the actors surrounding the murders and offers a blend of historical accuracy and his own imagination.I don't really want to give anything away so I'll keep the rest of my comments vague (and brief). The novel does an excellent job of creating scenes. Nineteenth century London felt as real to me as a 21st century the marshlands around New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The characters, too, came across as authentic to their place time and their geography. Mr Donald juggles a lot of plots throughout the course of the narrative but is able to deftly create a thrilling ending that held my attention right up to the final page.So yeah, if you are looking for a fresh take on one of the most famous unsolved murder mysteries, check out Louisiana Blood. LOUISIANA BLOOD began life as a screenplay. It won or was placed in over 25 competitions, was performed on stage and gained me the offer of representation in LA. It was set up as part of a huge Canadian Film fund and producers came and went. A few years on and I decided that the story was too good to remain an un-produced screenplay and so with the backing of many hundred followers and the support of my family it was reborn as a novel. But how did the idea first surface...? Forget everything you've ever read about Jack The Ripper...he never existed!I've always been into conspiracy theories, after all history has taught us that there's usually always a hidden agenda behind the big story, and sooner or later, the real story will come out. I looked at the mythology of one of the greatest serial killers in England, and possibly the world...not because of the scale of his activities...but rather the timing of his arrival.xa0I'm talking about JACK THE RIPPER.xa0His actions were the catalyst for a huge amount of change within the world, and the case had an impact on many areas, Prostitution, the birth of the tabloid press, major development in the east end of London, a massive shake up in the police department and a new focus on forensics, not to mention the political situation within the royal family and the sacking of the police commissioner...in short, a whole lot of people and organisations were never going to be the same...and while I'm reading about this, I'm thinking...what if that was what this was about? What if JACK THE RIPPER never existed?I wanted to write an epic conspiracy thriller as an alternate history novel, linking the conspiracy of London in 1888 with a contemporary thriller in Louisiana, something with the imaginative duplicity of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and the artifice of THE PRESTIGE.And so LOUISIANA BLOOD was born: Mike Donald was brought up in Scotland and England. Before going freelance to concentrate on his screenwriting ambitions, he worked for the BBC as a sound mixer, wrote for comedy sketch shows, and developed sitcom ideas. He also worked as a script analyst for a gap finance company and has written many award-winning screenplays. Mike lives in Oxford with his wife Dorrie and a power-hungry Terrier named Bonny May Donald. Louisiana Blood was adapted from his award-winning screenplay and is his first published novel. Read more