Rating: 
Summary: Dull
Review: I have listened to a lot of Patricia Cornwells books.
I could not believed she wrote this one. I have the
unabridged version and I was never so disappointed in
a book. There have been other books that I didn't care
for but this one drags out to much and is borning.
I know a lot about watermarks on paper or handwriting that
I don't think I need to know. Everytime I changed the
cassett, I kept thinking it had to get better, but it
didn't. She jumped around so much it was hard to keep
up with who she was talking about. I belive the painter is probably the killer. I have read several books on Jack
the Ripper and most of them at least kept my interest,
not this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Case Not Closed
Review: All this book did was convince me that Walter Sickert was a creepy guy. There is no evidence that concretely links Sickert to the Ripper murders. It's a pretty heavy blame to lay on someone without anything more than circumstantial evidence.
Rating:
Summary: sending letters does not make you a murderer
Review: I almost didn't get this book because of the bad reviews. Mrs. Cornwell did a good job in telling her story and in giving her views. I think she has proved that Sickert probably sent several of the ripper letters. However, sending a letter and taunting the police seems like a sick joke Sickert would enjoy playing. As far as him being the Ripper that's a joke. I suggest picking this book up if you can get it for a buck or two. However, if your wanting the straight story you won't find a better book than - The Complete History of Jack The Ripper by Philip Sugden. By the way, Mrs. Cornwall has been buying Sickerts paintings. If she can make people believe this man was Jack the Ripper - what an investment.
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting...an important piece of history
Review: After reading through the reviews here of people who "take issue" with the evidence, who say the author "hasn't proven" her case, who complain the book is "hard to follow," and so on, perhaps a fair statement would be: WHAT A BUNCH OF WHINERS!The book was, in fact, well-written and not hard to follow at all. (If you want to know one of the key reasons the justice system is in shambles in this country, just remember that these kinds of you-owe-me-more-evidence-than-that people end up on juries). Poor Walter Sickert, his reputation maligned...those poor Sickert relatives...please. Cry me a river. Perhaps they can explain the DNA links, his writing Ripper letters to the police and media, the unholy resemblance between images he painted and some of the Ripper's victims, and how he told people he knew the Ripper's identity (but "forgetting" it later, despite his famed photographic memory). Take a look again at the dead faces of Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddows, and Sickert's paintings. WHAT PART OF THIS IS TOO HARD TO GRASP? Think about his Ripper Bedroom picture. (How would he know?) WHAT PART OF THIS DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? I don't even consider myself a Cornwell fan, having only read one of her prior fiction works. I do know she's done her homework here--and then some. Actually, there was a young man here in Colorado (Ft. Collins) who was tried and convicted of murdering a woman on seemingly less evidence that Cornwell has for Sickert. The young guy had "telegraphed" and "recounted" the crime with his drawings, even though there was no direct physical evidence against him. (Folks: When people draw pictures of victims and details that only a killer would know, who does that then make the killer?) Not to be rude or anything, but the maligning this book is taking is ridiculous. It's a good, solid (harrowing) read, and something history should remember.
Rating: 
Summary: Not For Everyone
Review: In this book, America's bestselling crime writer solves the case on Jack the Ripper that has baffled experts for more than a century. Although Patricia Cornwell is an amazing writer, you must have some interest in forensic science and/or crime to read and thoroughly enjoy this book. It's a bit slow-paced at times but the author is just giving you plenty of background information for you to better understand the investigation of Jack the Ripper. She gives you so many details on everything that are conducive to you feeling like you are in the East End of London back in the 19th century. Patricia uses her extensive knowledge of forensic science to present the hard evidence on who the psychopathic killer was, who remained unknown for over a hundred years. With her skills of criminal investigation and as a number-one-bestselling author, Patricia produces an amazing book which is compelling as well as authentic.
Rating:
Summary: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed
Review: The majority of the content in this book is uninteresting digressions about life in London at the time of the Ripper murders and about modern forensic techniques which had no relevance to the Ripper case since they didn't exist then. The "Case" that Ms. Cornwallis considers closed is built on flimsy innuendo. Notably, she feels qualified to diagnose her target, the painter Walter Sickert, as having a psychopathic personality based on scanty evidence largely consisting of examples of his not being nice to people or determines that he must be the killer since some aspects of some of his paintings "resemble" some aspects of some of the murder scenes. Still, I might could forgive some of that if the book weren't so incredibly dull. This might be her greatest achievement -- making one of the most fascinating murder-mysteries in history boring. This book cannot, of course, rival the gruesome murders it considers. Nonetheless, it is a crime of considerable magnitude.
Rating:
Summary: Bad logic...
Review: Although Ms. Cornwell does provide much of the common data used by modern "Ripperologists" and provides a handful of new propositions, the book is fragmented and redundant in tone. Huge liberties are taken in her deductions and square pegs are forced into round holes more violently than the Ripper dealt deathblows. I imagine the only reason this book was released was to offset the losses she occurred in her obsessive and extravagant research of the case. IN SHORT: I would not recommend this as a Ripper primer, but only if you are interested in the greater span of Ripper theories.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell the Ripper
Review: Ms. Cornwell rips apart Walter Sickert's reputation in an attempt to sell a book about Jack the Ripper. The only things that is made entirely clear in this book is that Ms. Cornwell really hates a dead artist named Walter Sickert and she has no proof that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. Apparently, it is not that difficult to pin a series of crimes on a dead man when one uses unreliable evidence. Ms. Cornwell does offer some interesting circumstantial evidence which makes me wish I could hear Sickert's side of the story. Or that there were any information about his location at the time of any of the crimes of which she accuses him. Or she had anything other than evidence that he may have written some letters signing them as Jack the Ripper. I hope she plans to return to righting full out fiction like the Scarpetta books and stays out of the historical fiction realm where she trys to be her character Kay Scarpetta.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Overall
Review: After reading the reviews posted by others, I was suprised at the malice towards Cornwell. Anyone who expected this to be a tell-all about Jack the Ripper will be sorely disappointed. The evidence is over 100 years old, and much of it is missing. Did they expect anything new to come to light? Having said that, I would like to say that this is an enjoyable, well written piece of work. It brings to light new theories for anyone interested in Jack.
Rating:
Summary: Truthful...Case Closed!
Review: Oh, please. I detest armchair critics, amateurs who purport to know more than the author of a well researched, and well written book. Ignore such wannabes, and read this book. Ms. Cornwell's expert, investigative, and convincing expose on Mr. Ripper, is one of THE MOST exhaustive of the many books on the subject. The problem is, people have such entrenched notions, and narrow minds when it comes to new information that might possibly render their "knowledge" obsolete. So, they write negative reviews like the ones above. They are wrong. Yes, this book may challenge every preconceived idea you have had about the killer, but truth doesn't really ask anyone's opinion. It is what it is, and this book is worth considering truthful. A job well done, Ms. Cornwell. Jack the Ripper would be proud.
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