Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1888, Susannah Chapman, the narrator of Whitfield's uneven debut, marries Thomas Lancaster, a surgeon at London Hospital, where she used to work as a nurse. Susannah, who grew up poor, looks forward to a comfortable life with Thomas, but after their blissful honeymoon, he starts treating her harshly and exhibits a violent streak. The morning after the murder of a prostitute, who's later identified as possibly Jack the Ripper's first victim, Susannah finds scratches on Thomas's neck, which he claims were inflicted by a cat he tried to rescue, and she spots his fiercely loyal housekeeper, who was once his nanny, trying to wash bloodstains out of the doctor's shirts. Her suspicions only increase as the killing spree, attributed to the Ripper, continues. Whitfield does a decent job of keeping her audience guessing whether the obvious explanation is the true one, but the closing revelations come as a letdown. Readers interested in a similar plotline will be better served by Peter Ackroyd's superior The Trial of Elizabeth Cree. (May)
Library Journal Review
Susannah Chapman has always hidden her past, even when she studied nursing in London. In 1888, she considers herself lucky to marry Dr. Thomas Lancaster, a surgeon. On her honeymoon, he worships her, and she discovers she married a hedonist who draws her into his lifestyle, including liquor and laudanum. When they return to his house in Chelsea her insecurity returns in the face of a now abusive, angry husband, and Mrs. Wiggs, a housekeeper who frightens her. When violent murders occur in Whitechapel, and Thomas returns home in the early hours of the morning, covered in blood, Susannah begins to suspect he might be the killer she's reading about in the newspapers. Her suspicions lead her to the streets of Whitechapel and into trouble, as Mrs. Wiggs and Thomas turn on her, with plans to send her to an asylum. Her defenses crumble as her husband twists her comments and uses her past secrets against her. But Thomas's own actions have repercussions, bringing violence into the house on the day Susannah tries to flee her prison. VERDICT This debut historical mystery contains echoes of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Jack the Ripper. The unreliable narrator combines with richly detailed writing in a mystery with a shocking conclusion.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN