The Five : The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper- Hallie Rubenhold

‘Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.’

The history of Jack the Ripper’s victims told as a set of stories, following each woman’s life, and setting the scene of what it was like to be in their everyday shoes and what lead up to their deaths. A truly fascinating and engaging book that, rightly, sheds light on the ‘victims’ lives, rather that further focusing on their deaths.