What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

 I feel that I have a lot to pick up now.. It's quite a time since I posted here the last time.. Well - those of you who are still here: thank you very, very much! So without loosing more time - here we go with the review about a book I enjoyed very much reading - in English just by the way..

WHAT ALICE KNEW : THE MOST CURIOUS TALE OF HENRY JAMES & JACK THE RIPPER by Paula Marantz Cohen

 In a nut-shell:

In 1888 London is shocked by a horrible murder series - Jack the Ripper is enjoying himself very much.. Scotland yard asks William James who is a specialist in psychology to help them - that is especially Inspector Frederick Abberline to solve the case.

But William isn't the only one who thinks a lot about this case - his bedstricken sister Alice and his brother Henry, the world famous author, who both live in London - are helping their brother find out who is the vicious murderer..

Have a quick look at the Dramatis Personae - which is pretty interesting for those are persons who actually excisted outside of their authors and readers minds:

The actual (though you wouldn't guess it from my summary..) main character:

Alice James

August 7, 1848 - March 6, 1892

The brothers Henry & William James

Henry James 

April 15, 1843 - February 28, 1916

William James

January 11, 1842 - August 26, 1910 

Inspector Frederick George Abberline

January 8, 1943 - December 10, 1929

And of course there are some other persons having parts in this novel:

Notorious wonderful genius Oscar Wilde - love his wit!:

October 16, 1854 - November 30, 1900

Walter Richard Sickert
- one of my favourite painters:

May 31, 1860 - January 22, 1942

same goes for John Singer Sargent

 (this is a self portrait - I wasn't able to find a photo of him..)

January 12, 1856 - April 14, 1925

The very quick-witted Samuel Langhorne Clemens better known as Mark Twain

November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910

So - though this book is pure fiction and you shouldn't expect to find now revealed who Jack the Ripper actually was - it's a great book - and a fast read. You just mustn't take it as non-fictional book - otherwise you'll be very much disappointed I guess.. Frankly, I am a bit obsessed with the Ripper murders - I read almost every book ever written about these murders. (not even talking about the films about them..) 

I enjoyed very much to "join" a party with Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain. This really was fun to imagine.. It's a book that I might re-read at some time.. 

And for my luck we had some very heavy fog during the time I was reading this book in November - which appeared in shortest time and was really, really thick..

(well.. it is really hard to take a picture of fog, you know..)

So please take care, ladies and gents!

I hope to write soon again!

yours 

Irene