Stalking Jack the Ripper Book Review & History at a Glance
True crime does not interest me. The history, mystery and psychology behind Jack the Ripper are what intrigue me. That is why I thought I'd read Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. It is an exception to the rule (don't tell Holmes lol).
Trigger warning for readers: Stalking Jack the Ripper has gory scenes pertaining to blood, surgical procedures and bodily descriptions. This blog post doesn't go too much in-depth about that and the images do not indulge in those themes.
--Spoilers--
Summary
Audrey Rose Wadsworth is a teenager in 1888 London and the daughter of Lord Wadsworth. Since the death of her mother who did not survive an organ transplant, Audrey has pursued forensic science with a passion, learning all she can from her Uncle against her father's and society's wishes. Her brother, Nathaniel, looks out for her, despite his disgust for her interest.
While in disguise as a boy at the school her uncle teaches at, Audrey encounters Thomas Cresswell in class. His brilliance attracts Audrey while his arrogance frustrates her. Over time, she works closer with Thomas when her uncle is examines several victims of the gruesome killings partly because she wants to solve the crimes and partly because she is competitive with Thomas. Audrey gets deeper into the mystery of who Leather Apron/Jack the Ripper is and why he is committing these awful crimes. But her investigation has her turning a suspicious eye on the men in her life: her father, her uncle, her brother, even Thomas.
And nothing could prepare her for the final encounter with Jack the Ripper.
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| Photo by James Craig on Unsplash |
What I Liked
Each chapter provides a date and location, which I found helped to save time in reorienting myself. It was a nice touch that the author provided some historical images for each chapter.
Audrey and Thomas
I enjoyed the relationship and tension between Audrey and Thomas. They felt like an even match and their banter was funny at times. I liked that they were competitive, but also supported each other. They make a great mystery-solving duo.
Tributes
The atmosphere of the story was well described. It felt accurate based on the Sherlock Holmes content I have watched and read. I loved the reference to Sherlock Holmes with Thomas' dog. His dog is named Toby and is described as having a waddling gait, is "brown and white," and "lop-eared" just like the one in The Sign of Four. Thomas even says a similar comment to Holmes that Toby "is more intelligent than half of Scotland Yard" and says that he borrowed Toby. As much I love references and tributes to other characters and works, I find the author made this too much the same like Thomas himself (more that below).
As a fan of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I loved the talk of figurative and literal monsters throughout the book. It is fitting for a Jack the Ripper story. Audrey thinks of herself as a monster and wonders what is wrong with her for having a passion for cutting into bodies and studying forensic science. (To be fair, her society put it in her head that women should not dabble in such things, as her aunt keeps reminding her). And we have the ending where Nathaniel is much like Victor Frankenstein with his secret lab and intent to bring the dead back to life after scavenging for the right body parts (0from his victims).
It Was Real
You know how screens create a dream-like perspective? You see actors, musicians, whoever on TV, on the big screen and then when you go to see them or run into them in real life, it's hard to grasp that concept. It takes time to realize that these people are real and lead relatively normal lives. The same can be said for history. We learn about it through books and documentaries and things like war, poverty, famous figures make us yawn. Because we forget that these were real events and for most in North America, we lead quiet lives and cannot imagine being in such a position. We are far removed from it.
And with COVID-19, many of us saw a little of the effects by just changing our lifestyle or witnessing the death of a loved one. Stalking Jack the Ripper brought that sense of reality to me when Audrey wears a mask as she leaves the house in one scene because her father worried about disease. See, reading this book before 2020, that scene would not have made much of an impact. It would have been accepted as something in history rather than reality as it is today. And this book was published in 2016, so it's not as if the author intentionally put it in because of world events. One day, readers of Stalking Jack the Ripper will probably think as many of do, that COVID-19, wearing masks, were something in history.
So with that minor scene of wearing a mask and the reality of today, it's important to remember that the tale of Jack the Ripper was once a reality. Bedlam existed, the East End of London was a hard-working yet desperately poor section of the city that saw great industry and horrid living conditions.
Research Was Done
Maybe it's because I love alternate endings, but I enjoy it when authors weave history into their story. You get to see another way the story is told. Many locations, such as Mitre Square, and businesses, such as the Central News Agency, that were associated to the historical crimes make appearances in the book.
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| Image from All About History: Jack the Ripper, Issue 6 |
What I Didn't Like
*Going into this book, I already knew that it would most likely deal with human anatomy and blood and boy, there were some graphic passages that turned my stomach, but I skimmed through.
Cover
They say not to judge a book by its cover and while this is true, covers are supposed to give readers an idea of the story. It's like a mood board. The colors intimate the atmosphere and emotions to expect with elements of the story, such as characters, locations and objects.
This cover depicts Audrey in a lovely gown of the era, holding a knife. While we can't see her entire face, I got the sense that she was a cunning woman who could handle herself and even be a threat if she wanted to be one. This supports the title since it gives readers the impression that she is stalking one of the most dangerous individuals in history. The tables have turned.
Unfortunately, that is not at all how the story plays out.
Yes, Audrey is investigating and trying to identify Jack, but I'd hardly call it "stalking." Additionally, the impression I had of her image does not match her written character. More on this in the next section.
Weak Protagonist
Audrey is all talk. She makes these declarations of how different she is from other women and how she doesn't conform to society because she's one of the few women of her time who is interested in anatomy and crime. While this is a good start, she also claims to be able to handle herself and fights for her agency. But how she is written and the situations she's put into say otherwise.
For example, Audrey goes out at night to the neighborhood where Jack the Ripper could be. She is determined to take him down and prove her father's fears wrong and that she is capable of taking care of herself. But there is a difference between bravery and foolhardiness. She gets worked up into a state as she prowls around, but then Thomas finds her. Nothing happens to test Audrey's mettle and she is escorted home. I find she is missing the confidence her character on the cover exudes.
Another example is the ending where Audrey discovers Nathaniel's secret lab. The author puts Audrey into the stereotypical damsel-in-distress role, which was so disappointed after all of Audrey's declarations of being able to handle herself. I understand that the intimate connection to Nathanial and the shock of his being Jack affected her, but the author didn't give her any way of saving herself. Their father and then, Thomas are brought into the scene and, essentially, are the ones who save Audrey.
In comparison to the classic Nancy Drew books, there are a variety of situations that Nancy gets herself out of and where she keeps a cool head. That's what I was hoping for with Audrey since we were told almost too much of how capable she is.
There is a short scene where Audrey tells her father off at the breakfast table. I wish she had shown more of that fearlessness throughout the book.
Perspective
There is at least one instance where the narrator, Audrey, accidentally narrates from what would be a third-person perspective. One example I came across was: "Another crimson wave washed over my cheeks." From her perspective, Audrey cannot see her face since she is speaking to another character, so how could she know whether or not her cheeks turned crimson? She should describe the feeling. If this were third-person narration or first-person from a different character, then it would make sense to describe was Audrey looked like since the narrator is another individual.
Copied Character
Right from the first scene of Thomas in the classroom, I could tell he is copied from Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock. While I love it when creators make references, Easter eggs or tributes in their work to other works that they love, Thomas felt too much like Sherlock, so I couldn't appreciate his character since he didn't have much originality to him aside from a different backstory to suit the book.
Timing
The biggest question I have is why now? What made Nathaniel decide five years later to bring their mother back to life? Why did he drop out of his medical apprenticeship to study law? He was kept in the background a lot and his reaction to the police was not enough to indicate that he's guilty of something. I understand that whatever tonics and amounts of laudanum he was taking probably did negatively affect him and, like their father and uncle, the tonics and drugs changed him. But Nathaniel said he was doing this for Audrey, but that's only partially true. He was probably also doing it for their family as a whole because they went through the trauma of the mother's death. I just don't know why now.
Readers Can't Solve the Mystery
Audrey asks herself an important question once she realizes that Nathaniel is Jack: "How had I not seen the curiosity in him?". You didn't see it because it was not obvious at all. As I mentioned earlier, Nathaniel is kept at a distance so that his reactions can be interpreted several different ways. A few backstory details are divulged now and again, such as his apprenticeship in medicine being cut short because he switched to law. They don't really say why he switched.
Nathaniel's insanity shows only after Audrey realizes he is Jack the Ripper. There is no indication beforehand, which is helped by the limited scenes he is given. I'd say the only obvious scene is where he and Audrey are talking about bringing people back to life while they sit in the park. It makes readers start to really consider him as Jack.
But aside from that, the explanation for Nathaniel's mental state is that he was stressed and took an elixir and laudanum, which worsened his condition. Is this plausible? I find it isn't because he should have other symptoms, you know, the ones the voiceover lists on commercials for drugs at a super-fast rate. Nathaniel should have exhibited the signs long before the grand reveal. For this reason, I felt his display of insanity came out of nowhere. I can't recall if the book says why Nathaniel was stressed in the first place, even my notes don't have the reason.
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| Image from All About History: Jack the Ripper, Issue 6 |
What Was the East End of London Like in the 1880s?
The Whitechapel area was named after the chapel that was painted with white limewash. It was formerly known as St. Mary Matfelon. The Whitechapel was replaced several times and in its place today is a small park now called Altab Ali Park. The East End encompassed Whitechapel and Spitalfields (short for "Hospitalfields") and was located outside of the City of London's walls, where it became a run-down area.
While there was a legal requirement for inspections of common lodging houses in 1851, property owners more often than not had more people living together in the same apartment than was deemed healthy. On top of which, the owners would purchase second-hand furniture, often from hospitals, so it would increase the spread of disease.
What Else Was Happening?
From a historical standpoint, there was a lot of upheaval in the London's East End prior and during the time of Jack the Ripper. I consulted my bookazine All About History: Jack the Ripper, Issue 6.
Here are just a few example of life at this time:
- Jewish citizens were fleeing to the East End from Eastern Europe because the assassination of Tsar Alexander II was blamed on Jewish instigators. Additionally, many of the citizens were poverty-stricken and seeking a better future.
- With more Jewish citizens entering the city, they took up jobs like tailoring and cabinet-making. Many East Enders blamed them for stealing "their" jobs.
- The East End was still affected by the 1873 economic depression.
- Gangs of the unemployed vandalized shops and engaged in looting in 1886 because the political stance was shifting to socialism.
- Unionization was becoming popular.
- In 1888, there was the Match Girls' Strike of 1,400 workers because the Bryant and May factory sacked a worker who wouldn't sign a document that went against allegations published in a newspaper. This was the first strike that demonstrated how much power workers had and could make a difference.
- Charles Booth and other researchers explore the East End, recording the levels of poverty, which became a collection of statistical data called Life and Labour of the People (1889). The data revealed that 35% of East Enders were living on or below the poverty line with 13% enduring starvation on a regular basis.
Victims in the Book vs. History
In Stalking Jack the Ripper, the book links the victims back to Audrey's family:
- Emma Elizabeth Smith
- Mary Ann Nichols
- Annie Chapman
- Mary Jane Kelly
- Catherine Eddowes
- Mary Ann Nichols
- Annie Chapman
- Elizabeth Stride
- Catherine Eddowes
- Mary Jane Kelly
Note: Emma Smith was the first victim who was filed under the case of The Whitechapel Murder. But from then on, the cases in the area grew, including those who were believed to be victims of Jack. One such Whitechapel victim was Marth Tabram, whose case is still debated about whether or not she was actually killed by Jack the Ripper.
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| Image from All About History: Jack the Ripper, Issue 6 |
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