Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell's motivation for the book???
Review: I've never really followed the "Ripper legend" but I found SOME of this book compelling. I don't think it would get a conviction in court though. Cornwell makes a lot of ambiguous qualifications in this book, statements that discount the likelyhood of certain slang terms of the period used in the letters etc. Short of getting a time machine, that would be nearly impossible to call. These are her drawn conclusions with the evidence available. The problem with them is that Sickert lived a long life. Serial killers don't just stop on their own and it would have been obvious that murder would have followed him everywhere. He would have increasingly become the primary focus over the years by Scotland Yard and was not. A fun book to read but NOT a case closed. Cornwell claims to have spent 6 Million of her own money "cracking the case". First of all, that is a business write off and the hype of the book made her personal collection of Sickert's art work worth a fortune well beyond the 6 million. She remarks about Sickert's lack of conscience but Cornwell's personal life has been a self centered sham. She allegedly has quite an appetite for wrecking (FBI)marriages and shouldn't be putting herself off as some Elliot Ness type. It's too bad she didn't spend those resources trying to solve an ongoing case that would do some real good in stopping a killer that is currently walking the planet. Stick to fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Rank Speculation
Review: I was looking forward to this book, having seen Ms. Cornwell interviewed on TV about it. However, I came away deeply disappointed. Ms. Cornwell fills the book with speculation, rather than evidence. And some of the specualtion is shockingly weak. For instance, during the period of some of the killings, Ms. Cornwell was unable to find any evidence that Walter Sickert was NOT in London; which she takes as evidence that Sickert was the killer. If Ms. Cornwell doesn't know that he wasn't in London, then she doesn't know that he wasn't in Moscow. Should we blame him for murders in Moscow during that period? Some to think of it, she doesn't know that he wasn't in Paris; Berlin; Rome; Oslo; Dublin. The list is long... We are also treated to pages of speculation about the nature of some medical treatments that Sickert received as a child, based on a single remark a Sickert nephew made to the author. We don't know whether the nephew's remark is fact or family lore. In any event, it sends Ms. Cornwell off on a lengthy and elaborate set of speculations about whether Sickert was capable of having children... or even urinating normally! Does Ms. Cornwell have any evidence that Sickert had unusual bathroom practices? Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: poor logic
Review: Once we discover the author has very few facts to back up
her assertions and theories, this book has little of interest.
Plainly, there is just too much of the author's personal
conjecture, and too many broad jumps in logic, for her to make
any case at all for knowing the identity of Jack the Ripper.
The book reads like a poor attempt to support a conclusion
made before research and writing began, and that serious failing
really shines through in her writing.
For a serious student of those crimes, and that period in history, this is a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Case NOT CLOSED
Review: She bases her reputation on THIS?! I, too, had major problems with this book. Pat Cornwell cites many pieces of seemingly irrefutable circumstantial evidence but I have trouble believing that evidence when I see so many illogical or naive conclusions.
I will not detail all my problems with her theory but here are two: One is her ideas about the supposed killer's artistic style. When I saw her interview on a news magazine show she was describing Impressionism! Certainly not all of the Impressionist were murderers! A second is her idea that using prostitutes as models somehow made him a prime suspect. Again, in the times, artists often used prostitutes as models as many "respctable" women would not shed their clothes for an artist. Also, Degas, for one, thought they were more "real" and "alive" than professional models. P.S: Ballet dancers were considered just a step above prostitutes and a number crossed the line. I just cannot take this book seriously. Don't buy it; the other recommended books by a previous reviewer are better.
Rating:
Summary: Circumstantial in the extreme......A 'Ripper' RIP OFF!
Review: Patricia Cornwall's 'case closed' part of her title here is laughable. Her so-called "evidence" is a small fragmented DNA comparison which matches painter Walter Sickert's personal letter sample with one he supposedly sent the police as Jack the Ripper. The problem is that the 'match' without getting too scientific does not eliminate other potential suspects due to the nature and type of mitchondrial DNA compared. She then assumes that his violent paintings somehow reveal him to be the whore-hating murderer who carved his name into the history books. The leaps she makes in her case are far from conclusive based on the fact that she had access to much of the evidence still kept by Scotland Yard. Painting violent pictures of women etc hardly qualifies someone as a fiendish mass-murderer. If this were so, we would have a lot more of our artists locked up on death row. The only really redeeming aspect of the book (and why I gave it 2 stars rather than 1) is the descriptions of Victorian London of that time and some of the character portraits. These showed a novelist's eye for detail and provide a good sense of place and time. My conclusion is that the author should stick to writing the mystery novels which have made her famous. Fiction is clearly her best medium. If you buy this book looking for answers to one of the greatest all-time mysteries--- prepare to be disappointed. Rather than providing a conclusive answer, it merely adds another name to the frustrating list of potential ripper suspects in what has proved to be a cottage industry in the world of crime.
Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of a Killer - Case Closed
Review: If one is expecting a story about Jack the Ripper this is not the book to read. It's a very hard read but a most informative documentary type non-fiction book. The athor did her usual excellent job of writing and her research and investigation was outstanding. If the author is a student or intern, this should have been her thesis. A really inquisitive Jack the Ripper enthusist would be amazed at the detailed investigation and painstaking effort to decipher the information contained in the many, many documents and art work the author and her assistants reviewed. I am convinced that Walter Sicker was Jack the Ripper.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive Research Leading to a Final Answer
Review: Patricia Cornwell has given us the solution to a real mystery this time in her latest book, an investigation into the disturbing life of Walter Sickert, English artist and, it now appears irrefutably true, Jack the Ripper. Cornwell did an amazing amount of research, including DNA analysis of stamps and envelope flaps, and comes up with compelling though circumstantial evidence that Sickert was the Ripper. Sickert has been named before as a possible Ripper or as being involved in a cover up of the Ripper's identity, but Cornwell is the first to actually sew all the pieces together for a complete portrait. Sickert was a tortured man, a psychopath warped by a malformed penis which was made even less functional by botched surgeries when he was a child. He delighted in inflicting pain and in hurting those whom he deemed his inferiors. While there is no smoking gun, no confession or eyewitness account, Cornwell does pile up the evidence against Sickert so that it seems irrefutable. Along the way she also does a good job of convicting the London police of incompetence in mishandling evidence and failing to put the pieces together. She also provides strong evidence that the Ripper had a much longer career and many more victims than those usually awarded him. Furthermore, Cornwell exonerates some of the other Ripper suspects like Montague John Druitt and the Duke of Clarence (second in line to the throne). Even if she had not summed up the case against Sickert so well, this would be a worthwhile book just because it puts to rest the tired old rumors of a Royal and/or Masonic conspiracy behind the Ripper murders. Finally, Cornwell convincingly recreates the sad, impoverished world inhabited by Sickert's victims. London in the late nineteenth century was no place to be if you were poor or especially a poor woman. One feels so much pity for all of these women, forced into prostitution and despised for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Stirring Up Controversy
Review: Cornwall has certainly stirred up a storm of controversy with this one. She takes us back 113 years to the Jack The Ripper murders and paints a very interesting picture of the people and places of that time. Using letters, newspaper articles and police reports, she builds a case against the artist Walter Sickert. I personally found Cornwall's conclusions believable....much more so than other theories I have heard. Reading this account of events was like being a juror and hearing the prosecution's case. It will be interesting to see how many defense 'attorneys' will come forward to present an opposing view. Some of the crime scene pictures included in the book are not for the faint of heart. I would have liked to see more examples of Walter Sickert's paintings, but that might have been difficult to arrange. They are available from other sources of course. Cornwall has a disconcerting habit of introducing a piece of information then dropping it, only to reintroduce it later with a more complete explanation. Although the story is not told in true chronological order, the whole picture does come together eventually. Whether you agree or disagree with the author's findings, this book makes for a fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!!!
Review: This book is absolutely fascinating, not just for PC's invetigation into Jack the Ripper, but for her absolutely spellbinding descriptions and explorations of Victorian Society. She writes about the period as if she experienced it herself, displaying a deep understanding of the time, and a great knowledge of the era shown in the many, many magical details she incorporates into the writing, which simply make the book come alive. She makes every aspect of the book so damn interesting, and so i did find it very hard to put down (even for non-fiction, which can rarely be termed "exciting")
Aside from her brilliance at describing Victorian life, she argues her case for Jack the Ripper's identity very well, inserting so many small pieces of evidence in with the more major ones that the reader will find it very hard to ignore the strong possibility that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. After all, it is practically impossible that all the many, many pieces of circumstance and just coincidental. Even if a few are, many will still stand and implicate Sickert as the Ripper. I have to say, i am not convinced Sickert is the Ripper, though. (only about 85%) But then, i will NEVER be convinced of the true identity of the Ripper, because the crimes are now so old it is impossible that we will ever know for absolute certain, no matter how strong the cases for several of the suspects are. It is possibly, therefore, a little pretentious of the publishers to proclaim "Case Closed", but then, of course, if they weren't convinced themselves, or prepared to pretend they were convinced, then this book would carry very little credibility. I'm very impressed with the huge volumes of research Cornwell must have done. Ity really shows, not only in how much info she has amassed about Sickert's life, and trhe lives of those around him, but in the masses of period detail. It is incredibly unfair that people have criticised this book so much. It may not be conclusive, but no Jack the Ripper book ever will be. People immediately jump at her throat claiming there is proof that "Sickert was in France during the killings", but not once has anyone mentioned what this proof actually is, where it can be found, etc. And, honestly, does anyone think that this book would EVER have been published if it could be proved conclusively that Sickert was not even in the country at the time? Of course it wouldn't have been. And thus, it cannot be proved. This is a fascinating book, especially in her analysis of the Ripper letters as compared to Sickert's, and Sickert's artwork when compared to the crime scenes (which were seen by very very few people). the evidence of the guestbook is particularly interesting. Also compelling is the psychological portrait Cornwell paints of Sickert, from what she has learned about his actions and the events of his life. All in all, his personality just "clicks" when you think of how similar it is to those of killers already caught... Not necesarrily conclusive, but fascinatingly written, and Cornwell presents a good case.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of boring
Review: I love Patricia Cornwell's books. This is my least favorite (I never read her Billy Graham Book). It has too much scientific babble going on I get what she is saying but it is boring. I also wish she said how she considered him a suspect to begin with. I have read many different stories of Jack the Ripper both Non-fiction and Fiction and I do not think we will ever really know. She does show how a lot of the crimes happened in a lot of detail but without any real physical evidence just a few journals and speculation. To me this is all kind a myth anyway we do not know if there were 2 people playing the part or one. I do not think that you can say the case is closed. These murders are too old and too many people have tried to figure them out and muddled everything. Too many therories and very little evidence. These murders were tampered with and I read one book that said eventually The Ripper would not have been able to live among society anymore and this guy lived too long. I think he most likely was him or wished he was the killer but she does not convince me enough. Yes her DNA testing does point to the man she says was The Ripper but I have a hard time with any of the theories. I do not think she should say case closed but was an interesting read but kind of boring for her. Otherwise I commend her effort and did enjoy some of the book. Warning some of it is very detailed and will make your stomach turn. Don't eat anything before you read this book.
| 
