What Alice Knew

July 12, 2010
Cohen (Jane Austen in Scarsdale) pits novelist Henry James; his philosopher brother, William; and their sister, Alice, against Jack the Ripper in another fictional depiction of the Ripper case. With 1888 London in an uproar over the sadistic murders, Scotland Yard summons William from Harvard in the hope that his insights into the human mind will succeed where their efforts have failed. The three siblings, who soon conclude that the butchery is not the work of a skilled medical hand, decide to focus on the artistic community after Alice observes that the mutilations resemble a painter's brushstrokes. Other real-life characters, like Oscar Wilde and Ellen Terry, lend a hand in the investigation. While the solution to the question of the Ripper's identity is less than satisfying and the killer's motivation underdeveloped, the author does a good job of evoking the grimness of everyday life in the Whitechapel slums.

September 15, 2010
At the request of Scotland Yard, American philosopher William James, an expert in the science of the mind, travels to London to assist in solving the Jack the Ripper case. Once in London, William has access to the evidence collected at the crime scenes, and he travels with Inspector Abberline to interview witnesses. He then shares the particulars of the case with his brother, novelist Henry, and his sister, Alice, who is bedridden but feels she can still contribute to the identification of the madman. The story is told from multiple points of view, and Cohen seamlessly blends fact and fiction into fascinating looks at late-nineteenth-century London, the Jack the Ripper case, and the lives of the James siblings. In addition, she weaves in provocative details about the philosophy, literature, and art of the era and makes room for cameo appearances by such real-life figures as Oscar Wilde, John Singer Sargent, and Walter Sickert, once thought a suspect in the Ripper killings. For fans of historical fiction as well as historical mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)