The story of a lady killed by Jack, the ripper is told in The Five. It is written by Hallie Rubenhold. It tells a devastating tale of five women along with a heartfelt portrait of Victorian London. The author is a British historian who captured this event with all significant details. She is a specialist when it comes to the era of the 18th and 19th century with women and social history subjects. The subject book from the author was published in 2019. It was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. It won the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2019 in the nonfiction category.
Louise Brealey was fantastic with the narration of this book. The audience really would love to hear more from the narrator.
The story in this book is of five women, namely, Polly, Elizabeth, Annie, Mary-Jane, and Catherine. They all were famous for the same reason, although none of them ever met any of the other. They were from Fleet Street, Wolverhampton, Knightsbridge, Wales, and Sweden. They wrote ballads, lived on the country estates, ran coffee shops, etc.
One thing that unites all five of these women is the year 1888. It was the year when all of them got murdered. Their killer was never identified. The character that the media created back then for filling the gap became more famous than the murders or any of these five ladies. It was Jack, the ripper who used to prey on prostitutes, But, Hallie Rubenhold negated that. This character denied the stories of these women victims to be told to the world. The author has made just that significant attempt.
The Five is an outstanding book. This will make you angry about having such monstrous characters in our society even today. Such subjects should be shared by great historians like Hallie Rubenhold, which plays a good role in public awareness about the crime matters discussed in this book.
