Overview
"A marvelously rich and intelligent read, atmospheric, witty, irreverent, and not least a sharply perceptive portrait of those three extraordinary Jameses."
-John Banville, author of The Infinities
Under Certain Circumstances, No One Is More Suited to Solving a Crime than a Woman Confined to Her Bed
An invalid for most her life, Alice James is quite used to people underestimating her. And she generally doesn't mind. But this time she is not about to let things alone. Yes, her brother Henry may be a famous author, and her other brother William a rising star in the new field of psychology. But when they all find themselves quite unusually involved in the chase for a most vile new murderer-one who goes by the chilling name of Jack the Ripper-Alice is certain of two things:
No one could be more suited to gather evidence about the nature of the killer than her brothers. But if anyone is going to correctly examine the evidence and solve the case, it will have to be up to her.
Praise for Paula Marantz Cohen
"Cohen's wit is sharp, smart, and satirical, and her characterizations are vividly on target."
-San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Under Certain Circumstances, No One Is More Suited to Solving a Crime than a Woman Confined to Her Bed
Publishers Weekly
Cohen (Jane Austen in Scarsdale) pits novelist Henry James; his philosopher brother, William; and their sister, Alice, against Jack the Ripper in another fictional depiction of the Ripper case. With 1888 London in an uproar over the sadistic murders, Scotland Yard summons William from Harvard in the hope that his insights into the human mind will succeed where their efforts have failed. The three siblings, who soon conclude that the butchery is not the work of a skilled medical hand, decide to focus on the artistic community after Alice observes that the mutilations resemble a painter's brushstrokes. Other real-life characters, like Oscar Wilde and Ellen Terry, lend a hand in the investigation. While the solution to the question of the Ripper's identity is less than satisfying and the killer's motivation underdeveloped, the author does a good job of evoking the grimness of everyday life in the Whitechapel slums. (Sept.)