"Then, his voice sinking to a whisper, he hissed out ‘Your end will be bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword. Your feet shall go down to death, and your steps take hold on hell.’” The Lodger is a 1913 novel by English author Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, based on the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888. The book tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, owners of a failing lodging in London, who see in Mr. Sleuth, their only guest in a long time, their chance to salvage their business. As new murders happen in the surrounding neighborhoods, the couple becomes suspicious of this new arrival.