First, I have to say the only reason I picked this book up is because I
enjoy the Kay Scarpeta thriller series by Cornwell. It’s a closet pleasure
and one I usually don’t tell friends who know my normal reading tastes, but
there it is. So, when this one came out I browsed it a bit and decided to
wait for paperback before reading it

And I found I didn’t like it. At all. First, the book is badly written.
Really badly written. I had a hard time following her line of reasoning
because she jumps from one scenario to another with no logical path or
connecting point. She’s purporting to examine the remaining evidence and yet
she occasionally lapses into a fictional mode when describing the victim’s
thoughts. My biggest problem is with her analysis of her suspected killer,
an artist named Walter Sickert. With no real evidence, she tries to build a
profile of the adult based on some childhood operations that, again with no
evidence, traumatized him sexually and turned him into a psychopath. And she
uses his art as further proof of his mental state which seems to me to be
iffy at best. She makes glaring suppositions about his ability to fake the
various handwritings in the Ripper letters. She can’t actually put him near
the scene of any of the murders and since his body was cremated after death,
there is no possibility of using real DNA analysis of his DNA vs. what is
left on envelope flaps or licked stamps. How she could title the book “Case
Closed” is beyond me. She raises a few questions but really has no decisive
evidence one way or the other.

I also should have realized that the reason I don’t usually read true crime
novels or books is because I don’t generally care for the genre. Authors
include photos of crime scenes that are gruesome at best and Cornwell felt
it necessary to put photos taken of the Ripper victims in her book. They
were not pretty though thankfully fuzzy and in black and white. I have too
vivid an imagination to read books like this. I was expecting something a
little deeper and found instead something that is supposed to titillate in a
sick, twisted way. No thanks.