Exceptional research underpins this riveting study of the five victims of Jack the Ripper. These are well-told stories of women’s lives in mid-to-late 1800s, converging in the Whitechapel slums of London in the summer and early autumn of 1888. Rubenhold’s book is a much-needed corrective, staying away from the murderer and the murders but focusing […]
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Briefly, two true crime narratives about the current challenge of keeping libraries safe as the value of their special collections skyrockets and criminal collectors look to them as a source of valuable goodies. Disappearing Ink: The Insider, the FBI, and the Looting of the Kenyon College Library, by Travis McDade, is the fascinating story of […]
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I’ve been intrigued by true crime since the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966. I’ve watched the genre evolve from its beginnings in books about the crimes (sensational, usually gory), the criminal (usually gruesome), and the cops that investigate the crimes and catch (or don’t) the criminals. True Crime Addict, by James Renner, belongs in the latest […]
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Jennifer Robson has chosen a winning subject for her fifth novel, a story about the creation of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown and the transformative role it plays in the lives of three women: Ann Hughes, an embroiderer in the London workroom of designer Norman Hartnell; Ann’s co-worker, Miriam Dassin, a French emigre and Holocaust survivor; […]
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Every now and then, I happen on a book I really like, but which bothers me. Recently, I’ve happened on two books, both excellent, that bother me in the same interesting way. Here they are, briefly. Once Upon a Time: A True Tale of Memory, Murder and the Law by Harry N. MacLean This book […]
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I write crime fiction, so I read a lot of true crime. I often find the genre difficult, but it’s fascinating at the same time, especially as it has evolved over the last couple of decades. Recently, one of my author colleagues (Leia Francisco) made a distinction between “liking” a book and “appreciating” it. We […]
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The Pink Suit, by Nicole Mary Kelby. “What a strange power there is in clothing.”–Isaac Bashevis Singer The Pink Suit (Little, Brown, 2014) is the story of Kate, a talented Irish seamstress who works in Chez Ninon, a New York fashion house that has been commissioned to copy a Chanel suit, in raspberry pink, for […]
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The Real Lolita, by Sarah Weinman I’m not a fan of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, although I’ve taught it when it was on a college course book list. If I had to teach it again, I would make The Real Lolita required reading. It puts Nabokov’s book into a newly relevant and important context and raises interesting questions […]
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