People of Abandoned Character

Wouldn’t be my normal kind of book but throughly enjoyed it - the descriptions of late 19th century London were superb and def not sugar coated in any way . Additionally the challenge of being a female during this era were shown in so many different ways. A great read

I really enjoyed the suspense of this book. It was very well set up to keep you guessing up to the very end.

I loved how she interweaved fact and fiction to recreate a story from a new perspective which left you questioning it all over again.

As a big fan of "the back story" of characters, books, movies or newspaper articles, I quite enjoyed this one possible branch of the Jack the Ripper lore. It is written from the viewpoint of a woman, Susannah, with a difficult early life as the daughter of a prostitute in Whitechapel during the grimiest segment of its history. After her mother's death she is sent to live with her grandparents in a strict and rigidly religious household in a much smaller city--the antithesis of her earlier life. The death of her grandparents frees her from the responsibilities she had for their care and her decision to train as a nurse enables her move back to London.
Susannah is very happy with the freedom she feels after all the restrictions of her early life experiences of poverty, desperation and fire and brimstone religion. She enjoys the structure of her training and never expects to do anything but nursing and eventually teaching. She enjoys the respect she earns. What she never expects is to meet and be pursued by a handsome and talented doctor. In marrying him she finds herself having to leave her dream of nursing and becoming once again isolated and dominated.
How she becomes entangled with the Jack the Ripper mystery unwinds gradually with many twists and turns and more than a little gore. If the reader is squeamish this is not the book for you. The descriptions of the Ripper's activity are vivid and horrifying. It is the stuff of nightmares.
Clare Whitfield is a fine author and I look forward to seeing what she has for us next.

This is Clare Whitfield's debut novel and it holds some promise for her future work. Though the title and cover suggested to me that it would be quirky in nature, the book is in fact quite a brutal story of life in the times of Jack the Ripper. The main character is a nurse who marries a younger doctor and soon grows suspicious of his behaviour and late-night absences from the house.

It was enjoyable enough to read, though not recommendable for the faint-hearted reader, particularly towards the macabre climax. A lot of the narrative is simply the central character thinking everything through in her head. Not much is left suggested with every idea and theme needing to be explicitly stated and consciously meditated upon. Though there is a lot to do to place the reader in the Victorian setting, Susannah does suffer from a lot of modern thoughts which don't quite befit a woman of her era.

I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, but this book kept me hooked from start to finish. Full of plot twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, with strong and believable characters, this is an excellent debut novel.

This is a gripping read, full of suspense. Probably not a good bedtime book but worth a look at in the daylight!

This is a gritty read full of Victorian dark drama and delivers another take on Jack the Ripper.
Normally I am not a fan of this theme and although I have tried other books and their ‘take ‘on this subject they have not won me over. However........all I can say about this book is ‘WOW!’

From the first page I was utterly hooked. I will say it is not for the feint hearted. Some parts are extremely gruesome.
The book is extremely well researched and you can feel the atmosphere of Whitechapel creeping out from the pages.

Will very much look forward to the next book from this author Claire Whitfield, she is utterly wonderful and this is the best book I have read all year. Loved,Loved,Loved it!

Houghton Reading Group really enjoyed this novel, set in the London of the Leather Apron - later to become renowned as the Ripper. Our protagonist is Susannah a young woman left alone in the world at the start of the book she takes control of her life before others can make any decisions for her and heads to the Whitechapel Hospital to train as a nurse. Here she meets an interesting array of characters and get to observe London's underbelly at close quarters, she also meets a dashing doctor who soon becomes her husband. But something isn't right, and Susannah soon begins to fear she has married a monster.

It sounds as if it could become fairly predictable from this point, but that is far from the case, Susannah is breathtakingly naïve but also stupidly brave and the journey she takes herself on is full of twists and turns. She is an interesting protagonist who you feel is not always reliable, but she does have a good deal of gumption and a curiosity that gets her into trouble.

A story set around the ripper but told from a female perspective who isn't a victim is refreshing. The Whitechapel Hospital is central to this book, it links the horror and poverty of this part of London to Harley Street and Chelsea in the most unexpected way.

Thank-you to Head of Zeus and The Reading Agency for our book group copies.

This is a novel based around the Jack the Ripper murders, intertwining creativity with well researched facts from the annals of history. The result is a very gripping read indeed. Although fairly gruesome in places as details of the murders emerge, this did not put off most of the readers in our Book Club and the overall response was very positive. You do not need to have a particular interest in Jack the Ripper to enjoy this novel - it really is a very good read, suitable for everyone who loves the genres of mystery, murder and suspense.

A gripping read for anyone with a love of historical fiction or murder mysteries. The central character, Susannah is a well crafted, believable character whose life takes an ominous turn when she meets her husband to be, Dr Thomas Lancaster. The book reflects upon the depravities of the time and takes the reader through a series of twists and turns before revealing the final outcome.

This book is set in London in the late 19th Century. Susannah Chapman spent her early life with her mother in the squalor of London’s Whitechapel. When her mother dies, she is shipped off to live with her grandparents in Reading. The story begins in 1988 when Susannah is 27 and her ailing grandmother has just died, leaving Susannah free to embark on a career as a nurse at the London hospital in Whitechapel. Here she meets the charming and wealthy Dr Thomas Lancaster who pursues her relentlessly, despite being five years her junior. Things start to go horribly wrong just after they are married when Thomas becomes distant and starts to exhibit strange behaviour patterns. These coincide with a series of gruesome murders in the Whitechapel area and Susannah comes to the ghastly realisation that this may not be a coincidence. Has she really married the infamous “Jack the Ripper”?

Given that historical fiction is not my favourite genre, I was amazed to find that I really enjoyed this book. For a debut novel it is a very accomplished achievement. From the little checking that I have done, it seems to stick quite closely to the known facts surrounding the enigma of Jack the Ripper and the author has managed to combine this with a very readable and quite gripping piece of creative fiction. There a few twists and turns in the plot as the back story of Susannah is revealed and more surprises as the depravities of the time (and not just among the lower classes) were revealed in all their glory. Physically it is a beautiful book as the dust cover has a texture which makes it feel luxurious to the touch and there is even a built-in fabric page marker.

The only downside from my point of view was that the detailed and gory descriptions of the atrocities that were committed on the murder victims were gruesome to the point where they almost seemed gratuitous. However, I am not a great one for violence (Tom and Jerry is a bit too violent for me), so the level of goriness that I can stomach may fall well short of the norm.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story or who has a particular interest in Jack the Ripper folklore, with the caveat that a strong stomach is required at some points. I certainly hope that Clare keeps up the good work and I look forward to future publications.