I think that you have to be a super-fan of forensics to really enjoy this book. I think she proves her point. The person who probably really was the Ripper sounds awful and by the end of the book I was very, very tired of reading about him. Cornwell's histories of poverty and gender relations as they interfered with anyone's ability to see who the killer could be was interesting. I got a lot out of the book AND I was glad when it was over. ( )

Ugh.I listed to about 45 minutes of this nearly 15 hour book and decided that life has much better activities in it. It plunged into inane and I gave up when it began to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. Cornwell, please, stick to fiction. Will return to audible.com for a refund. ( )

zzzzzz
seriously, why do I bother buying anything by PC anymore? ( )

This book is an update of the author's previous book: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed. I didn't read the first book but I read this one out of a morbid curiosity of how a case as old and notorious as Jack the Ripper could be "solved" by current forensic technology. Well, it wasn't exactly solved, as there is a lack of a direct, provable link to the crime scenes, but the author makes a compelling case based on circumstantial evidence. Her research was very extensive and she called in appropriate expertise for DNA testing, stationery/paper analysis, and other scientific methods. I would have preferred it to be organized in chronological order (or some order that was obvious to me) and I think it was a bit repetitive. I learned a lot about abnormal psychology, forensic analysis, history of coroners, and life in Victorian England (reinforcing what I had read in Dickens' classics). I enjoyed the animated graphics used at the beginning of each chapter. As a warning, as you may expect due to the topic, there are grisly details of murder scenes, photos of the victims after death, and other gruesome details. Recommended to adult readers of true crime and those interested in 19th century history. ( )

I read Cornwell's first book on the subject, PORTRAIT OF A KILLER: JACK THE RIPPER -- CASE CLOSED, when it first came out in 2002. That first Ripper book had a lot of pre-publication buzz. I read the book because I was a relatively new fan of Cornwell's fiction (I started reading her in 1999) and I thought it would be interesting to see how she applied modern investigative techniques and technology to a historic--and still open--case. Plus, I love reading about the 19th century. This updated and expanded book is definitely worth a revisit.

Read my full review here:
http://www.wildmoobooks.com/2017/02/patricia-cornwell-takes-another-stab-at.html ( )