Synopsis: Marry in haste . . . Murder at leisure?
London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes. Thomas's behavior becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. The gentle caresses she enjoyed on her wedding night are now just a honeyed memory.
When the first woman is murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah's interest is piqued. But as she follows the reports of the ongoing hunt for the killer, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time Thomas stays out late, another victim is found dead. Is it coincidence? Or is her husband the man they call Jack the Ripper?
To think I nearly gave up on this. It wasn't quite holding my fascination at the beginning, but the premise promised so much that I continued on. And OMG! What a finish! About halfway through things start to move - think gothic fiction along the lines of "Gaslight" and "Rebecca" and you'll know what you are in for.
Just as Alice was led down the the rabbit hole by the White Rabbit, so Whitfield leads the reader through the crime-ridden sordid streets of Victorian Whitechapel, an area of overcrowding and abject poverty. It was a city of doss houses, sweatshops, abattoirs, overcrowded slums, pubs, a few shops and warehouses. Although described as “terra incognito for respectable citizens", it was a place were the wealthy gentlemen "slummed it" and the well-heeled ladies got their daily crime fix by visiting the scenes of horror (from the deplorable living conditions to the crimes scenes of the Ripper).
Women within Victorian society were entirely at the mercy of the men who dominated their lives: first, their fathers and brothers would control them when they are still young and when they are married, their husbands. Marriage was considered very essential and significant for the sake of the stability of the society. Women were therefore expected to be very obedient and submissive in order to have a happy and stable marriage. Women were not supposed to divorce; they were expected to live with their husbands even if it meant to live in miserable marriage.
Women thus began to perform duties outside their homes. This meant that they would cook, nurse and educate young people for a pay. Nevertheless, a woman was only supposed to work as long as she was not married, but once married, she was expected to stop working and take up her role as a wife and mother.
It wasn't until the 1880s that educational opportunities and institutions opened up to women to continue with their learning. Whereas prior to this, an educated woman was not considered attractive nor marriageable material. At the same time, women attained more legal rights with the establishment of more movements and acts. The married women property act allowed married women authority over their own properties. Her property was hers and not her husband’s.
When Nurse Susannah Chapman marries wealth doctor Thomas Lancaster, little did she know what she was getting in for - yes, marry in haste, repent in leisure is very apt. With no family of her own and isolated from her friends, Susannah finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage. Husband Thomas becomes this Jekyll and Hyde type character, and when the Ripper murders start, Susannah slowly connects the dots, coming to a horrifying conclusion that could end in her own death.
For a first novel, this is gripping stuff - as I said, I nearly gave up on it early on in the piece, but the scene was just being set with a bit of retrospective narrative - it will make sense as you near then end. And I especially loved the narrative ascribed to the Ripper's victims. The ending .... you know its building up to something, however, the something that we get is far for expected! It is almost noirish by definition.
This and Elizabeth Hill's "Killing The Girl" have to be two of my favourite crime reads for this year.
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