People of Abandoned Character - Clare Whitfield

People of Abandoned Character

Review by Andrea

Rating 10/10

As soon as I saw this book and the story line I just knew that I had to pick it up and read it. It took me a while to get into the story and then to fully get sucked in, but once I did it was worth it. There was the odd time when I had to go back and read what I had just read as the English seemed to be a little bit off or didn't make sense.

The story starts with Susannah at a funeral as she decides to leave her childhood home and begin a new life by becoming a nurse in London. While in London she rushes into marriage with a Dr at the hospital she works at, this leads her to quit being a nurse and to become a housewife. Like most women at the time she became interested with the Whitechapel Murders but she has to keep it a secret and hide all the newspaper cutting she has collected hidden from her husband as well as their housekeeper.

Susannah starts to suspect her husband as he keeps disappearing and coming home late, then when he does come home he is covered in blood. There is also a room in the attic that he keeps locked. When Susannah tries to confront her husband he flies off the handle at her, this causes her to become scared of him and every night she starts to lock herself in her room. She starts to feel unwell and starts to see one of her husband's co-workers as her personal Dr. On doing so she becomes close to him and believes that she can trust him and she soon starts to tell him everything that she suspects, but there seems to be something sketchy about him. Things soon come to light and start slotting into place as to who is behind the Ripper Murders. As Susannah becomes closer to solving the mystery her husband is murdered by her Dr who then leaves her for dead, this leads her to run away from London and start a new life far away. 

When I first started reading the book and got to know the characters I thought that it was her husband that was the Ripper as all the clues were pointing in his direction. But the more I read and the more I got to know some of the other characters my idea seemed to change. Susannah gave me another idea as to who the Ripper might have been. Like everyone else, I thought that the Ripper was a Doctor, then after reading another book 'Uncle Jack' the idea came about that it may have been a midwife as they would have been able to walk the streets while covered in blood unquestioned. But reading this book it gave me the idea that it could have been a nurse that had left her position but wanted to carry on. It also gave me another idea that the Ripper may have been a Dr from the local hospital that had then be found out by one of his co-workers and then may have murdered them to keep them quiet. 

Reading this book really opened my eyes to new ideas about the Ripper and gave me a different way to view the person that may have been the Ripper. This book is ideal for any one that is interested in Jack the Ripper and is open to new ideas on who might have been behind the murders. It may take a while to get into, but once you do the story is worth the read. Most books seem to be about women that were murdered, but this book to me felt different, this concentrated more on who might have been the murderer. This also shows a different side of class that was in Whitechapel at the time and not the normal poorer class.