The Sixth Victim

April 24, 2017
Harris’s late-Victorian historical, a series launch, is less successful than her Dr. Thomas Silkstone mysteries (The Anatomist’s Apprentice, etc.). Although flower girl Constance Piper must struggle to make a living, she recognizes that she’s better off than the desperate women working the London streets, and she is deeply disturbed when they begin falling prey to the serial killer who will become known as Jack the Ripper. Meanwhile, Constance is preoccupied with another puzzle—the whereabouts of Emily Tindall, a teacher who taught her how to speak and act properly. Part of the problem is the familiar plot. The Ripper murders have been the basis for countless whodunits, and Harris’s depiction of London’s impoverished East End, while solid, is just not at the level of authors such as Paul West and John Brooks Barry. Even focusing on the woman whose torso was found in the building site of what was to become New Scotland Yard—the sixth victim of the title—has been done better by Sarah Pinborough in 2014’s Mayhem. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, Knight Agency.

May 1, 2017

The autumn of 1888 is a frightening time to be a woman in London's East End. The killer who calls himself Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of Whitechapel. A Cockney flower girl, Constance Piper, is just as fearful, but she also has been preoccupied by strange dreams and premonitions of murder and longs for advice from her mentor, missionary Emily Tindall, who has disappeared. When a potential sixth victim of the Ripper is discovered, a wealthy woman, worried that the deceased might be her missing sister, begs Constance to use her clairvoyant powers to solve the crime. The author of the "Dr. Thomas Silkstone" mysteries (Secrets in the Stones) launches a new Victorian series with this gruesome tale that weaves plots involving Jack the Ripper, clairvoyance, and missing girls. Constance is an unusual protagonist with a special gift. VERDICT Harris's treatment of the working class's spirituality and belief in ghosts will attract fans of Sharyn McCrumb's "Appalachian Ballad" mysteries. Readers who follow Jack the Ripper theories may also enjoy.--LH

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