Title: The Five
Author: Rubenhold, Hallie
Published by: Black Swan (Transworld Publishers)
Year: 2020
First published: Doubleday, 2019
Date reviewed: 04.20
ISBN: 9781784162344

The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

The stories of the lives of these five women have one thing in common: they show how desperately hard life was for working-class women in mid-Victorian times, and how easy it was for their lives to spiral into hopelessness. Focusing on the victims and their lives, Rubenhold barely touches on their final fates and to the annoyance of some ‘Ripperologists’ she ignores completely the unanswered question of the identity of their murderer.

The stories are both fascinating and heartbreaking. Rubenhold presents each as a novella, combining a novelist’s narrative style with detailed historical research and social commentary, making each one a compelling read. Inevitably there is speculation; when historical detail is lacking the novelist fills in the picture: “it is possible that …”, “X would have believed …”, “The most plausible explanation is …” and so on. This is not a criticism; I never felt that Rubenhold had overstepped her role as biographer for the sake of maintaining the narrative. The stories she tells are entirely credible, and the words used by other reviewers – gripping, haunting, eloquent – are fully justified. Lucy Worsley‘s summary: “The Five will leave you in tears of pity and of rage.”