The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.

If you are looking for one more book about the infamous Jack The Ripper, this is not the book.

If We allow ourselves to talk about his victims, to understand how their lives was at the time, see them as humans we will be able to give them back the respect and sympathy they deserve. Jack the ripper victims where not only “Prostitutes” they were daughters, wives, mothers and sisters. They were Women!

“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t. —

AUDRE LORDE”

Winner of the Readers favorite History & Biography Goodreads Choice Award