[.ca] Sweeney Todd: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of ... (ISBN 1861059892)

Work of Fiction:
The author tries desperately to convince the reader that the mythical tale that inspired the Stephen Sondhiem musical in based in reality. He relies on fictional accounts of the Demon Barber to support his hypothesis. Still, it makes for quick reading, if only to hear the various accounts of the story of Sweeney Todd.

Tedious:
While I'm grateful anyone wrote a book on the topic, this is a joyless flogging of the facts. Hard to believe such a slim book on such a rich topic is this dry and uninteresting. Haining is tight-lipped and emotionless. Just try to figure out what his tone is. It's not a good late-night tale of murder, it's not a crime dossier, it's not thrilling or even disturbing. There is no dramatic arc to his recounting of the facts. You get the sense that he would have preferred the whole story composed as numbers on a chart. It was a huge effort to pick this book up after a pause, and continue.

A waste of time.:
Haining claims to have discovered documentation that proves the existence of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street during the late 1700s - early 1800s. Unfortunately, nowhere in the book does he cite his references or make clear exactly where he found this documentation. Without this vital information, it's difficult to accept Haining's claim that Sweeney Todd actually existed. The book is a work of fiction and should be marketed as such.