Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London

Bondeson (Murder Houses of South London) does a workmanlike job of chronicling a dozen unsolved cases of murder in London from 1861 to 1897 that have been greatly overshadowed by the Whitechapel murderer. Not all of the individual cases%E2%80%94which include some prostitute killings, two where shopkeepers were probably killed by robbers, and cases where the elderly victims were targeted by burglars%E2%80%94are compelling, but even the more prosaic ones offer insights into the state of policing at the time. The most unsettling chapter deals with a series of tragedies that few readers will have even heard of: the West Ham Disappearances of the 1880s and 1890s, which culminated in the sexual assault and murder of a 15-year-old girl. Bondeson, whose 2000 book, The London Monster, rescued from obscurity an 18th-century criminal who slashed women, has again done true crime devotees a service by providing a look at cases that were local sensations at the time but have largely faded from memory. (Feb.)