The Women in the Shadows included in The Times Best Historical Fiction Books of 2025
The Women in the Shadows included in The Times Best Historical Fiction Books of 2025
'The Whitechapel murders of 1888 have proved fascinating to writers for well over a century. Recent accounts, fiction and non-fiction, have endeavoured to give some dignity back to Jack the Ripper’s victims, who have so rarely been portrayed as real individuals deserving of it. Harriet Fox’s novel attempts to do the same and tells the story through the eyes of three other women who decide to investigate the murders. Emma is the wife of the police inspector in charge of the case; Bet is a spirited young working-class girl; Maggie runs a private detective agency. This disparate trio find common cause in the search for the killer. Although the plot has some implausible twists, and Fox’s solution to the perennial mystery of the Ripper’s identity is easy enough to guess many pages before she reveals it, her novel provides a lively new perspective on a grimly familiar tale.' Nick Rennison, The Times
Buy The Women in the Shadows here.