The Five

The Five

19 February, 2019
Author: Hallie Rubenhold
Genre: Biography
Category: New Books

Recommended by bookseller Eleanor Franzén:

"This group biography of the 'canonical five' women presumed to have been killed by the same person–known to history as Jack the Ripper–in 1888 is long overdue. Each woman is given a section of her own, consisting of three to four chapters that trace her life history from birth to the night she died. The murders are not described: Rubenhold's purpose is to illustrate that the murdered women were more than the story of their deaths. Compassionate and unsentimental, her description of the trajectories of their lives makes the similarities between these women and the homeless population of modern London painfully clear. It is, in short, an excellent book as well as a much-needed one: it mingles true crime and well-researched history with narrative energy and Rubenhold’s ever-present passion for her subject."