Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper -- Case Closed (Berkley...

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 400 pages
• Published by: Berkley October 28, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0425192733
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0425192733
• Book Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 8 ounces

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed (Hardcover) Like many others, I was more than a little annoyed at Ms. Cornwell's effrontery in the "Case Closed" part of her title. I had a "Who in the world do you think you are??" attitude before I read a page. So before going further, I would like to commend her on her hard work, and the fine investigating she did on the late Victorian era, and depictions of the poverty stricken East End of London, particularly White Chapel. Ms. Cornwell shows her inexperience in handling historical material by her woeful lack of sources and citations. Her opinions are just that. Her bibliography does not list one source by any of her colleagues who have devoted years of study to the case. Her villain of choice, the artist Walter Sickert, is not a new suspect, nor has all her investigation elevated him to prime suspect level. The degraded mtDNA found on an envelope enclosing a letter sent to Scotland Yard purportedly from Jack the Ripper could belong to 40,000 people in London alone as well as Walter Sickert. Ms. Cornwell refuses to believe ANY crank letters were sent to the Yard and London newspapers, that every last one was from Walter Sickert. This would entail Mr. Sickert traveling the length and breadth of Great Britain and France during a two-month period. Ms. Cornwell "proves" Sickert was in London at the time of the murders by flatly stating no one "proved" he wasn't there in spite of the fact that a contemporary letter from Sickert's wife places him in France. She places hidden meanings in his dark forbidding paintings that try as I would, I couldn't see "weapons" and "hidden faces." All through the reading of this book, I had the uncomfortable feeling Ms. Cornwell was trying to squeeze a size 16 model into a size 8 dress, slicing off a leg here or an arm there; anything to make it fit. All to no avail. "Portrait of a Killer: Case Closed" is poorly organized and repetitious, making it a dull read particularly the last few chapters. My conclusion is the same as many readers; too many years have elapsed. Jack the Ripper is lost in the fog of time. -sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer Comment | | (Report this)