Book Review: What Alice Knew

Jack the Ripper is perhaps the most famous serial killer of all time, especially because he was never caught, and he perpetrated his horrors in Victorian London, a time and place that never liked to know about the seedier side of life. Paula Marantz Cohen's historical novel What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper brings a new perspective to the famous case.

London, 1888. American author Henry James is living in London and is out every night as a member of the esoteric literary and arts scene. His sister Alice, a semi-invalid, also lives in London, in her own town home. The Ripper case is all anyone is talking about, and bedridden Alice, very intelligent and quick-witted, loves to read the papers, speculate, and design scenarios. When the siblings' brother, the renowned professor William James is summoned to London, from Harvard College in Massachusetts, by Scotland Yard. Professor James is engaged in "important research in the new science of the mind" and Sir Charles Warren, Metropolitan Commissioner of Police is hoping he can shed some light on the motives and behaviors of the elusive killer.
With the three James siblings reunited in London, Alice is excited to put a plan she has been scheming into motion. Although she cannot got about the streets of London herself, William, with his Scotland Yard connections, medical knowledge, and insights into the human mind, and Henry, a man who is able to fit into both high society and the more dissolute areas of London, can bring her information to analyze. The three will solve these crimes together, each bringing their own unique talents to the case. William is soon running about London with members of Scotland Yard, finding new evidence and refuting theories that were already in place. Henry is about in the drawing rooms and gentlemen's clubs listening to conversations, and soon the three have a suspect.
What Alice Knew is a well-written thriller, with oodles of great Victorian history thrown in. Ms. Cohen, a professor of English at Drexel University, brings her scholarship and research to the story, speculating on Henry's and William's feelings and motivations, and sharing stories about artists of the times such as John Singer Sergeant and Oscar Wilde, friends of the James family. As a lover of both historical fiction and mystery/thrillers I couldn't put What Alice Knew down, and I look forward to what Paula Marantz Cohen has for us next!