Customer Reviews

Death at Whitechapel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ever wonder who Jack the Ripper was and why he committed his crimes? This latest opus by the husband and wife writing team known as Robin Paige is a must for anyone interested in unsolved mysteries of the past. The hero and heroine are engaging in their own right, but their solution to the mystery of Jack the Ripper is interesting and imminently possible. Charles and Kate are asked to do a favor for their friend Lady Churchill, mother of Winston. Their inquiry leads them to an altogether different mystery. The writers certainly do their homework on this one.

I found the most recent book to be throughly absorbing. I especially like the historical accuracy and details in the story. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the Victorian Era stories.

I grabbed this one at the airport. I read it through two flights. Having read the biography of Jenny Churchill, I was impressed by how historically accurate the book was. I have just finished this last book in the series, and am now ordering the other five prequels. Gosh, it's an old-fashioned Nick and Nora Charles genre. I had a RIPPER-ROARING time reading this one.

This is one of my favorite books in the series. So what if the Jack the Ripper angle wasn't historically accurate. This book is FICTION. I enjoyed it. It's a wonderful mystery. This series and Emily Brightwell's Mrs. Jeffries series are my favorite in the Victorian England genre.

The settings are intriguing, the characters are colorful, and I love Charles Sheridan's cryptic telegram exchange toward the end.

I highly recommend this series if you like murder mysteries set in Victorian England.

This mystery is fascinating for anyone interested in the so-called "ripper murders." The subject has been a repeated topic for investigation and surmise primarily because the crimes were so sensational and the perpetrator was never caught. The authors use one of the conspiracy theories that have arisen in modern times to explain the crimes, using their central characters to investigate at the request of one of their friends among the nobility. I have come across several similar theories, but found the one proposed by the authors as by far the most plausible.

Again the picture of society during the 19th and early 20th centuries is fascinating; the authors have managed to capture the character of an era in transition beautifully.

The portrait of Churchill will probably surprise many readers; as individuals of the mid-20th to early 21st centuries, we have inherited a more lionized image of the man as Prime Minister of England during it's darkest and most heroic epic, World War II. His rocky path to glory is something with which most of us aren't as familiar, so the character in the book, based as it is on his early life and activities, comes as something as a surprise. Still, that's what historians do, demystify the past, put it into more human terms, and reveal the effects of time and character on the course of events.

I enjoy the novels that this husband and wife team write about the late Victorian era. What I like the most is the extensive research that they put in each book, as well as the real life characters from that time that they insert in major roles in each story. This book is no exception. It was a fascinating insight into the infamous Whitechapel murders, and a very plausible theory as to who committed the crimes. Kathryn and Charles are wonderful sleuths, and in this book we see a very innovative Kathryn do some undercover detective work. Unfortunately, I had figured out the murderer of the blackmailer early in the narrative, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. This is a fun series, and you'll find that you become strangely attached to these people as you read.

This is the fifth in a series of period mysteries written by a husband and wife team under a pseudonym. The books are well-written and well-researched, with the stories taking place in Victorian England. Replete with period detail and the social mores evocative of a bygone era, this is a series of historical mysteries that is well worth reading. The main characters are engaging, and with each passing book, the reader becomes more fully engaged with their lives. As with all cozy mysteries, it is not so much the mystery that is of import but the characters that revolve around the mystery. While the mystery is intriguing, it is simply the framework around which the characters evolve.

Lady Kathryn and her husband, Sir Charles Sheridan, the Nick and Nora Charles of the Victorian era, are at it again. When Jennie Jerome Churchill finds herself being blackmailed, she realizes that this could have grave implications for her son, Winston Churchill, whose political future is at stake. It seems that these blackmail threats claim that there is proof that Winston's father, Randolph Churchill, was none other than Jack the Ripper.

Confiding in her friends, Lady Kathryn and Sir Charles, she seeks their assistance. What they discover is nothing short of tragic but it can never be made public, as the future of the monarchy is at stake, and there are those at the highest levels of government who will stop at nothing at keeping it so.

As always, there is a historical underpinning to the story, and the historical personages and events that are at its root are intertwined into the mystery at hand. The historical notes at the end of the book are most enjoyable, as they allow the reader to understand the reasoning and research that went into such inclusion. In this case, they provide a lot of information about the early Ripper theories and what led the author to weave the story in a certain way. For those who enjoy history, these end notes are an added bonus to these books. Those who enjoy the historical cozy mystery genre will definitely love this series.

This started a bit slow but really picked up and I remembered why I enjoyed this series! It doesn't have as much humor as Deanna Raybourn's "Silent in the Grave", but more than Anne Perry's books, so it's a happy balance for a Victorian husband/wife mystery series. The interesting thing is "Robin Paige" is actually a husband/wife team of writers, and they work actual historical figures into their stories (Beatrix Potter, Lillie Langtry, Rudyard Kipling, etc.). Makes for an interesting read, and you learn about the political/social climate of the times, always a pleasure for this history buff! This may not hold up to the scrutiny of criminology or Ripper experts, but I think fans of the series will enjoy this foray into the mean streets of London's East End and the Ripper mystery.

This is the 6th book in the Victorian Mystery series and is a bit of a departure from the rest of the series. The focus is on blackmail with the major historical characters being a young Winston Churchill and his mother. The other major historical figure is Jack the Ripper. Kate and Charles work separately to determine if Lord Churchill was involved or possibly was Jack the Ripper. Kate travels to the scene of the Ripper crimes along with Jennie Churchill, masquerading as Irish family of one of the Ripper's victims. The story involves possibly doctored photographs, blackmailers, the Masonic society, sexual scandals, syphillis and various conspiracy theories. The Jack the Ripper mystery takes center stage and there is less character development for Kate and Charles. It was intriguing to see the theories played out and see a young Winston, who was quite different from the portrayal in history books. This was rich in historical detail and obviously took a great deal of research to write. I learned more than I expected and enjoyed the book.

Was it actually the father of one of the world's greatest statesmen?

Jennie Jerome Churchill, the American-born mother of the future prime minister Winston Churchill, is afraid. Her, and her son's, extravagant lifestyle has already put them into debt, and now someone is blackmailing her, insinuating her late husband had a part in the "Ripper" murders ten years earlier. If what the blackmailer says is true, it will destroy her life and her son's burgeoning political career. Enter once more Kate Ardleigh Sheridan and her husband Charles, American mystery writer and British peer and amateur criminologist, to help her, especially after the blackmailer is found murdered. I especially enjoyed this outing because it was interesting to see a glimpse of the young Winston Churchill, very much not the old political lion figure at this point, but a callow, often snobby, youth, and also because the Ripper murder theory in this novel is very like the one presented in the Sherlock Holmes film MURDER BY DECREE.

I'm puzzled, though. I was under the impression that a character first presented in the previous book was about to become a regular character...I guess I was wrong!