Is number 13 a story Left Behind for Readers to be Enthralled By?
In a remarkable new book that has just been released, Leah Tallent & Gareth Lowery have become the most talked about characters in the world of fiction since Edward and Bella arrived on the scene. These two people, who have begun the first of their seven-series adventure, are taking readers through a puzzle of monumental proportions in: Tallent & Lowery – 13.
From the steps of the New York Public Library to the haunted halls of the Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California, this puzzle is one of epic proportions. And the next step in their path to expose the secret that was buried in 1902, takes place on a rather famous street.(Excerpt from 13:)
Leah stood up and began to pace back and forth across the carpet. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit into her lower lip, as the card catalogue opened inside her mind. “What are you trying to tell us, Al?” she mumbled, trying to dissect the clue. “What does a top hat have to do with a miller? Court…church…a church owned by a miller? A judge who sent a miller to jail?” She could feel Gareth’s gaze burn into the back of her skull as she tried to piece the puzzle together.
“Let’s take the clues separately,” said Gareth, trying to help. “The biggest drawing is a church. Maybe…like the Winchester House, there’s a chapel located somewhere with thirteen steeples?”
“Chapel…wait.” Leah sucked in her breath. She could feel the shot of electricity spark inside her brain.
“Maybe a miller went mad and built a haven in the middle of nowhere and…what? Sacrificed bodies?” Gareth continued grasping at straws. “That would account for the ‘Body and Blood’ angle. Then maybe he went to court for his crimes? Maybe-”
“Jesus.” Leah saw the well-known grainy photograph of the horrific location coming into focus, streaming through her head like a black-and-white banner. Chapel…Body…Blood. She turned around and stared into Gareth’s confused face. “It’s ‘The Ripper.'”
Leah Tallent, the fictional Head Research Librarian of the New York Public Library, finds herself embroiled in a mystery of epic proportions. Readers have been grabbed instantly as they walk by her side through some of he most amazing locations across the globe.
One of the clues left behind by the ‘madman’ Leah & Gareth are chasing, is a clue that leads directly to another locale that is steeped in the bad omen of 13. The address is 13 Miller’s Court, and was built on a street that was once beholden to a predator who was both vicious…and intelligent. So intelligent, in fact, that he would go down in history as the most famous killer never caught by the law.
In the East End of London, in 1888, there was an area known as Dorset or “Dossen Street” because of the large number of doss-houses (flophouses) it contained. This short, narrow street was once considered the most “dangerous street in the world.” And on November 9th, 1888, it lived up to that very title.
In the mid-nineteenth century a man named John Miller built some cottages in the back gardens of his properties at 26 and 27 Dorset Street which became known as Kelly’s lodgings. The actual address was No. 13, Miller’s Court which was entered through a tiny, dark passageway that sat between his Dorset Street homes. This was an area that boasted of an attempted murder on an average of once a month. Policemen used to patrol the street in pairs in order to protect one another from what they knew they would find – seeing as that criminals roamed on a daily basis, prowling the alleyways to see what they could steal…or kill.
There was a woman named Mary Jane Kelly who frequented Dorset Street. Even though Mary had come from ‘well-to-do’ people, her life had taken many different paths and she ended up in the hovel that was No. 13 Miller’s Court, working as a paid “escort” for others in the area. She was known as “Fair Emma,” although it was never known whether this applied to her hair color, her skin color, her beauty, or whatever other qualities she may have possessed. She had gravitated toward the poorer East End of London because of certain relationships and poor choices that Mary had made.
Her love at the time was a man named, Joseph Barnett, who had told police that Mary was twenty-five years old and had been born in Limerick, Ireland. Barnett and others often commented that Kelly could always be heard singing Irish songs in her very drunken states, which had earned her the other nickname of Dark Mary. Barnett first met Kelly in April of 1887, and they agreed to live together. In early 1888 they both moved into 13 Miller’s Court – a single twelve-foot square room with a bed, three tables and a chair.
On the historical evening of November 8th, Barnett saw Mary for the last time between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m.. He had found her in the company of Maria Harvey, a friend of hers, and Harvey and Barnett exited Mary’s company at around the same time.
Placing Mary in various locations that evening was a trial for the policemen, considering that everyone on Dorset Street seemed to have something to add to the case. Fellow Miller’s Court resident and “paid escort,” Mary Ann Cox, reported seeing Kelly returning home drunk in the company of a ginger-haired man wearing a bowler hat at about 11:45 p.m. At that time, supposedly Cox and Kelly wished each other goodnight, as Kelly went into her room with the man and then started singing. She was still singing when Cox went out at midnight, and when she returned an hour later at 1:00, the singing had stopped.
However, a local laborer, George Hutchinson, reported that Kelly had met him at about 2:00 a.m. and asked him for a loan. He claimed to be broke and, as Kelly went on her way, she was approached by a man. He reported that he’d overheard them talking in the street opposite the 13 Miller’s Court where Kelly was living; Kelly complained of losing her handkerchief and the man gave her a red one of his own. Hutchinson claimed that Kelly and the man headed for her room and never saw either one of them again.
On the morning of November 9th, 1888, Mary’s landlord had sent his assistant, an ex-soldier by the name of Thomas Bowyer, to collect the rent. Kelly was six weeks behind on her payments. Shortly after 10:45 a.m., Bowyer knocked on her door but received no response, so he reached through a cracked window, pushed aside a curtain, and peered inside. What he saw was one of the most hideous sites that the world has ever seen. The discovery of, what most assume, was The Ripper’s final victim.
Extensive house-to-house inquiries and searches were conducted by the police, and Mary’s murder was soon linked with the four previous ones, saying that the killer of all was the same man. The government offered a pardon for, “any accomplice, not being the person who contrived or actually committed the murder, who shall give such information and evidence as shall lead to the discovery and conviction of the murderer or murderers.” But, despite the offer – and a massive police investigation – The Ripper was never found.
The Mary Kelly was the most savage of the Whitechapel murders, most likely because the murderer had more time to commit his atrocities in a private room rather than out in the street.
Leah Tallent & Gareth Lowery must figure out exactly what was left behind by ‘The Ripper,’ and whether he was, in fact, part of the extraordinary puzzle that 13 is all about.
“The DaVinci Code with Heart” is the word being spread about this incredible book that has readers racing to their computers in order to Google the real truth behind the locales and people that made the puzzle of 13 come to life!
You do NOT want to miss this read!
Tallent & Lowery: 13 is NOW available on Amazon: B005LC11Q4