The trouble with true crime books is the way they often focus on the worst of humanity, killers, men who usually assault and murder women. With victims often relegated to poorly described helpless silhouettes. In this book, Hallie Rubenhold doesn’t mention the killer. She has done an amazing research job, reconstructing the lives of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper. Placing them in the social context of the time with so much skill, their lives are easy to imagine. I loved this book, it honours the women who are so often only remembered as a footnote to the killer.