Based the Jack the Ripper case, Marie Belloc Lowndes' chilling and enduringly popular novel, The Lodger, has gripped readers since its 1913 publication. The Lodger inspired several film adaptations, including a 1927 version by Alfred Hitchcock. The time is turn-of-the-century London where a depraved killer, The Avenger, is murdering women on the fogbound streets in a particularly grisly way.