Patricia L. reviewed on 3/25/2011

Helpful Score: 1

This was possibly one of the worst books I have ever read. Patricia Cornwell should be ashamed of herself for writing this book.

I am not a huge Cornwell fan; I read her book on the Body Farm and found it to be poorly written but not terrible.

This book, on the other hand was a complete disaster. Her writing style is insane. It is almost as if the publisher printed her first draft. She CANNOT keep a train of thought going for more than a page and often jumps to completely unrelated story lines mid-paragraph. This was obviously annoying, but the worst and most irritating part of this book was complete lack of evidence or supporting information.

For someone who is "friends" with Bill Bass, NONE of his pragmatic thinking or unbiased presentation of facts has rubbed off on her at all. She uses Sickert's paintings as proof that he was violent and deranged much the same way the Nazi's used avant-garde art to prove that modern artists were degenerates. Shame on Patricia Cornwell, shame. She makes unsubstantiated accusations throughout the book, uses pieces of 'evidence' that are not even attributed to Sickert OR Jack the Ripper to 'prove' that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. She also used extremely misleading language throughout, but especially in regards to her forensic evidence. The whole book is a sad joke. Her assumptions range from baseless to irritating to inflammatory. Patricia Cornwell should leave the real-life detective work to professionals. All she did with this book was embarrass herself.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details