- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company; 1st Edition edition (11 Nov 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316861596
- ISBN-13: 978-0316861595
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 446,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Few books receive the kind of pre-publicity that Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed generated. Some of it was good, some of it not so good, but all was calculated to get reader interest running at fever pitch. In fact, Patricia Cornwell's actions in trying to solve the world's most famous serial-killer mystery (just who was Jack the Ripper?) have been highly controversial, but since when has controversy undercut interest in a book? And who better than a writer whose name is synonymous with the scientific solving of crime to tackle London's legendary mass murderer?
Using the methods of her character Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell's forensic investigation has pointed the bloody finger of guilt at a figure who has long figured prominently in the Ripper files. The investigation here is an intriguing mix of the personal and the professional: as well as orchestrating a Scarpetta-like search for the identity of the Ripper, Cornwell involves several very personal connections with the task she has set herself, and this is no dry thesis. Needless to say, the more gruesome aspects of this famously grisly case give no pause to a woman who has taken us into the grimmer aspects of forensics with her unsqueamish protagonist, and we are spared no details here (but who would purchase Portrait of a Killer if they had delicate sensibilities?). The arguments here are intelligently marshalled, and laid out with the precision and attention to detail of Cornwell's novels.
In order to prove her thesis, Cornwell purchased (and made tests on) some great works of art, but the tale of how she arrived at her highly contentious conclusions is quite as fascinating as one of the Scarpetta books. You may not agree with her, but you will not put this book down. --Barry Forshaw
Review
'The world's top woman writer.' Sunday Times
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First Sentence
Monday, August 6, 1888, was a Bank Holiday in London. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Monday, August 6, 1888, was a Bank Holiday in London. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If proof were needed that Amazon needs to introduce a zero star rating, this, folks, is it. This book is utterly uninformed, badly constructed and littered with declarations of personal (often unsupported) belief, rather than with facts.
The prime arguments it contains are all patently incorrect: Sickert had an operation on his penis - not true. The operation (actually to his anus) traumatised him - not true. It instilled in him a hatred of women, a result of a botched operation that left him impotent - not true. His works show hints of violence towards women and clues to his crimes - subjective, but almost certainly not true. He wrote (at least some of) the Ripper letters - widely discredited, especially by Sickert experts. His DNA matches that found on some Ripper letters - not true (Sickert was cremated and no DNA traces remain; even if the vague results drawn of 110-year-old letters and paintings constitute evidence, they suggest similar biological traces, which 1 to 10 percent of the population shares.... He killed again well after 1888 - so totally unfounded it beggars belief. He could well have been in Whitechapel at the time - in fact, he spent most of the period in Northern France. I could go on... but I think we're starting to get the idea. It's all so incredibly inept.
Walter Sickert, from all the sources left behind of his life and friendships, was not a violent or especially angry man. He was selfish and admittedly a little weird, but that does not a Ripper suspect make. In total, Cornwell's impression of a psychotic villain who managed to conceal his homicidal tendencies until his death in 1942 to every one of his friends, relatives, artistic acquaintances etc. totally fails to convince.
This is not history. It's not even a proper conspiracy theory. It's just total tat.
The prime arguments it contains are all patently incorrect: Sickert had an operation on his penis - not true. The operation (actually to his anus) traumatised him - not true. It instilled in him a hatred of women, a result of a botched operation that left him impotent - not true. His works show hints of violence towards women and clues to his crimes - subjective, but almost certainly not true. He wrote (at least some of) the Ripper letters - widely discredited, especially by Sickert experts. His DNA matches that found on some Ripper letters - not true (Sickert was cremated and no DNA traces remain; even if the vague results drawn of 110-year-old letters and paintings constitute evidence, they suggest similar biological traces, which 1 to 10 percent of the population shares.... He killed again well after 1888 - so totally unfounded it beggars belief. He could well have been in Whitechapel at the time - in fact, he spent most of the period in Northern France. I could go on... but I think we're starting to get the idea. It's all so incredibly inept.
Walter Sickert, from all the sources left behind of his life and friendships, was not a violent or especially angry man. He was selfish and admittedly a little weird, but that does not a Ripper suspect make. In total, Cornwell's impression of a psychotic villain who managed to conceal his homicidal tendencies until his death in 1942 to every one of his friends, relatives, artistic acquaintances etc. totally fails to convince.
This is not history. It's not even a proper conspiracy theory. It's just total tat.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It is perhaps unecessary to add to the numerous, accurate, criticisms voiced in previously posted reviews; but the book irritates me! Cornwell demonstrates a laughably poor knowledge of the Ripper murders, Victorian society and the geography of London. There is not one shred of serious evidence to support Cornwell's accusation of Sickert but plenty of evidence of her own absurd egotism. There are plenty of other Ripper books that fail to convince, but entertain by their cleverness in manipulating the evidence. Stephen Knight's 1979 book 'Jack the Ripper the final Solution' that, I believe, first introduced Sickert as a suspect, is nonsense but very clever and exciting nonsense. Cornwell just ignores all facts about the cases and substitutes irrelevant and unnconnected material. According to Cornwell Sickert not only wrote every single one of the hundreds of letters to the press, the police, and to public figures, including those purporting to come from the murderer as well as all letters about the murders. He also, apparently committed more or less all unsolved murders (of men, women and children) recorded in the British Isles and nearer parts of the continent over the late Victorian period; all this in his spare time from being a celebrated and prolific artist. I would suspect this book of being a joke if I thought she had a sense of humour.
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm just glad that I only borrowed this from the library! As other readers have noted this book is not put together in any coherent fashion. Part of my job for the last 18 years has been in putting together cases for the prosecution. Sometimes those have to be based on circumstantial evidence but this is paper thin. The case she presents far from being closed, wouldn't even justify the police interviewing Mr Sickert! If he were alive I can't begin to estimate the amount of libel damages she'd be paying out! It's all very well for her to come up with far-fetched motives etc in her fictional detective stories - I really hope no-one believes they're true to life - but here she purports to be writing a history book -and the rules I'm afraid are different. I would not like to be the university student putting this forward as a thesis.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Trial by Innuendo
I should have twigged when I paid just 1 euro for an unread copy on a car boot stall. I struggled hard to get through the welter of irrelevant detail, for it is not a riveting... Read more
Published 49 minutes ago by Michael J. Law
Another solution to the case!
Patricia Cornwell is a perfectly competent author, in most respects. Any author can write on any topic that he or she wishes and a publisher may choose whether or not to publish... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Claptonian
Deluded American does not crack case.
A very poor investigation led by an agenda from the start. Her desperation to fit Sickert up has tainted everything, she barrels ahead with such determination she barely offers a... Read more
Published 3 months ago by B. E. A. Dixon
Well worth reading
Amazing book. The author applies new forensic techniques/technology to shed groundbreaking evidence which clearly shows who Jack the Ripper was. Read more
Published 6 months ago by B. L. Squires
Poor Walter Sickert
I dont know what is worst about this book. Possibly the use of the words 'Maybe' and 'He could have' which throw the entire solution to the case down as a series possibliltites... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Madmarshall
Interesting But Inaccurate
I bought this book on the back of all the hype - and should have known better.
I knew very little about the Jack the Ripper case beyond the obvious. Read more
I knew very little about the Jack the Ripper case beyond the obvious. Read more
Published 11 months ago by CorkRebel67
Depends on what you're looking for...
I'd like to start this review by saying I'd never heard of Walter Sickert before reading this text. Equally, I'd never read anything by Patricia Cornwell before, so it's fair to... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Reader
Awful. Just awful.
I make the assumption that this is called 'Portrait of a killer - Jack the Ripper - case closed' because 'badly written speculation - case not at all closed' would not have sold... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. Aj Wilson
The best bits were the pictures
This book is literally the ideas of Cornwells fiction writing mind and nothing else.
BEFORE YOU SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THIS please believe everything all the other... Read more
BEFORE YOU SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THIS please believe everything all the other... Read more
Published 14 months ago by K. Doolan
Case closed? Not really!
Patricia Cornwell's non-fiction offering, "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed" is filled with meticulous detail about Jack the Ripper's murders. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Cloggie Downunder
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