People of Abandoned Character is a historical crime thriller and Clare Whitfield's debut novel, set against the backdrop of Jack the Ripper's hunting ground of late-nineteenth-century Whitechapel, London. Susannah, a nurse at The London Hospital, rushes headlong into a marriage with young, affluent surgeon Thomas Lancaster. They've barely made it home to Chelsea from their honeymoon before it suddenly dawns on Susannah that Thomas's charming disposition is changing, either that or the facade he had been showing was beginning to crack. He becomes increasingly volatile, violent and prone to temper changes at the flick of a switch staying out the entire night before returning home covered in blood and hiding horrifying secrets. When the first woman is brutally murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah cannot tear herself away from the news; she watches with both trepidation and interest at the media and police hunt for the merciless killer, and she allows the shocking thought to enter her mind that her husband, the once sweet and empathetic man she wed, is the perpetrator... because every time Thomas is out late, another victim is discovered brutally slain...

Wow, this was a frighteningly gripping and refreshingly original take on Jack the Ripper and Ripperology which paints a disturbing portrait of a wife slowly coming to the realisation that she married a monster. These type of stories featuring psychopaths of the past can often come across as theatrical and glorified but this was wonderfully authentic and believable in every sense. Susannah is trapped in the equivalent of a perpetual nightmare in which she is perfectly aware what is likely to be happening but is not able to look away from the sheer horror of it either as she seeks out more information as if to confirm her already realised fear — she's married to a serial killer. The descriptions of the crimes themselves can be graphic and overwhelming but somehow they don't come off as sensationalist, and despite the potential for the plot to be surface level, Whitfield adds a fascinating depth to it by addressing the issues of the time — misogyny, domestic violence, abject poverty and discrimination. Painting a stark, moody and atmospheric portrait of Victorian London, this is a riveting, powerful and thought-provoking read. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.

People Of Abandoned Character is a clever, gritty novel revolving around the Ripper murders in Victorian London and it not only provides vivid descriptions of the murders , but also the gruesome conditions endured at the time to produce a very dark read indeed.

Highlighting the poverty and sanctimonious morals of the times the novel describes a Women’s struggle to be taken seriously and the desperate measures some took to survive.

The story begins at the funeral of Susannah Chapman’s abusive grandmother, immediately after which Susannah moves to London and become a nurse . After losing her female soulmate she is aggressively wooed by the handsome doctor Thomas Chapman who she quickly marries, overriding the stigma of rising above her station and her future seems assured.

Things start to deteriorate when she moves into her new home and meets the housekeeper from Hell Mrs Wiggs ,favourably reminiscent of Mrs Danvers from Daphne du Maurier‘s classic Rebecca........ but what secrets is this housekeeper keeping?

The new husband rapidly loses interest in his new bride and begins to act strangely violent.
It is at this point the Ripper murders capture the attention of the press and the lurid details fire Susannah’s imagination. As she begins to suspect her husband of carrying out the murders shed decides to investigate. Inevitably nothing is what it seems and there are many very clever twists and turns before things slowly become clear .

Overall an excellent, well written book that fully immersed me into the murky world of Victorian London, highlighting the helplessness of men and especially women and lays bare the horrors of the medical facilities of the time.

London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. When they return from honeymoon, she has her husband wrapped around her little finger. But Thomas's behaviour becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. When the first woman in Whitechapel is murdered, Susannah's interest is piqued. Everytime Thomas stays out late, someone is found dead. Is it a coincidence or is her husband Jack the Ripper?

Nurse Susannah Chapman married Dr.Thomas Lancaster for love. But love soon turned to fear. Susannah does from a headstrong woman to a snivelling wreck. None of the characters are likeable. The era has been well researched and seems true to it's time. Both %homes and Susannah have secrets. There's gory details of the injuries, locally and people. The story is told from Susannah's perspective. This is a good debut novel.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #HeadOfZeus and the author #ClareWhitfield for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to experience London's underbelly in the mid-1800s then Clare Whitfield will take you there with no holds barred. A terrific read from a first-time author that starts with a marriage and quickly takes a dark turn keeping the reader guessing to the very end. To say more would spoil the journey.
An independent review thanks to NetGalley

I was keen to read this book, as the plot sounded so interesting. I love historical fiction, and a good murder mystery, so a combination of the two sounded great. While I enjoyed the book, and was kept engaged right to the end, I disliked all the characters, even Susannah, and therefore wasn’t totally captured. It was certainly a good depiction of Victorian life in London, class differences, and gender inequality. A good debut, and should be a popular book choice for historical fiction readers.

Fiction meets non-fiction, based on the real life events of ‘Jack the Ripper’. I enjoyed the historical side of this book, detailing the awful conditions of life in the East End of London compared to suburban Chelsea, including the history of the London Hospital. Very gory at times so not for the faint hearted, Would recommend for anyone interested in this time in history interested in the ‘Ripper’ stories. A very good first novel by Clare Whitfield.

Set in London in the late nineteenth century, People Of Abandoned Character is an excellent debut novel.
The story is told through the eyes of Susannah Chapman, born into abject poverty in the slums of Whitehall then raised by her grandparents after her mother’s death. Susannah learns early that survival is tough. Her life involves escaping one awful situation after another, shaping her into an interesting and complex character by the time she finds herself married to Dr Thomas Lancaster, a thoroughly hateful man.
I liked the way author Clare Whitfield interspersed stories about each of the Ripper victims, slowly building tension and a sense of doom for Susannah. I also liked the way she showed her characters’ good and bad points - for example Susannah has a laudanum addiction through much of the story. She also drew a very lifelike image of London’s slums with all their disease, filth and decay.
If there were any changes I’d have liked it would be to vary the tension and pace a little more. A bit of lightness in the mood here and there would have increased the sense of doom. Aside from that this was an excellent first novel and suggests a promising career for this author.

Susannah is poor, of no standing, and after her grandmother dies, finds herself a position at the London Hospital. There, she finds friendship that will help define her, and the man who will become her husband. But a murderer is on the hunt, and her husband just might not be who, or what she thought he was.

I am so glad I stick with this book. It took me a little to get into, and the switching between the past and present, but once I got over that, wow! The way the author switches between present, and events from Susannah’s past really reads like a tv drama, and it’s actually quite engaging.
And the roller coaster of suspicion and horror that poor Susannah endures... well, at the end, did she get what she deserved? Or was she sure something entirely different. You’ll have to read to find out!

'Oh, what a tangled web we weave' springs to mind in this engrossing novel which opens up the dark and rather moody streets of Victorian London in a story which had me, quite literally, on the edge of my seat.

Susannah Chapman is a respected nurse at the London Hospital but seeking an escape she accepts a proposal of marriage from, Thomas Lancaster, a handsome surgeon, five years her junior. At first, the marriage is passionate but on their return from honeymoon, the relationship takes on a very sinister edge, and Susannah finds, to her cost, that the charismatic young doctor she married, is a very different character in his home surroundings.

Beautifully written with a genuine sense of being at one with the characters, I couldn't help but follow in Susannah's footsteps as she tried to discover what type of life her husband was leading and just what caused him to return home in the early hours of the morning covered in blood that, most certainly, wasn't always his own.

So many fictional stories have been based round the nightmare time of Jack the Ripper, when the Whitechapel district of Victorian London lived in terror, and this novel certainly depicts the fear and shadowy darkness which shrouded the area like a malevolent fog. Susannah's fears that her husband lives in a shadowy twilight world is expertly explored, as is the downward spiral into madness which is so beautifully descried that the airs stood up on the back of my neck, filled with trepidation of what was going to happen next.

People of Abandoned Character is an exciting debut novel that you simply can't put down. I wanted to read it at every opportunity even though I was apprehensive of what the plot would throw up next. I enjoyed piecing together all the pieces of the puzzle, never quite knowing where the story would go next or what secrets would be revealed in both Susannah and Doctor Lancaster's eventful life together.

Well this had a lot of promise but I found it to drawn out and the characters were horrible! If it had not been so slow at the beginning I would have enjoyed it more but overall not to bad#PeopleofAbandonedCharacter #NetGalley

A gripping and gory mystery novel that questions the status of women in Victorian society. I found the prose to be engaging and I was unable to put this book down until I'd read the very last page. Jack the Ripper remains a source of fascination to so many people that I'm sure this will be on the bestseller lists.

This was interesting.. It’s 1888 and a “spinster” of 30 marries a man five years younger. He seems to adore her until after the wedding. Set in Whitechapel women are being brutally murdered, and every time it happens her husband comes home with blood on his clothes. Is he Jack the Ripper? I liked this book. It was something different, and cleverly done

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Actual rating of 2.75

The year is 1888, and Susannah Chapman is toiling away to become a full fledged nurse when she meets Thomas, a wealthy surgeon who has eyes just for her. After marrying rather quickly, and experience a wonderful honeymoon. The couple return home to begin their life together in Chelsea. Susannah soon notices Thomas start to change. He's not as attentive as he was before, his moods have turned sour and more often than not, she finds herself his target. When he begins staying out late at night and not disclosing where it is he is disappearing to, Susannah starts to have suspicions. When prostitutes begin showing up dead and mutilated, she takes a heavy interest in following the case through the newspapers. Then she realises, each murder is happening on a night that Thomas is not at home, he comes home with strange wounds or his clothes covered in blood...could her new husband be the one they call Jack the Ripper? Will she find out before it's too late to save her own life?

When I saw this book advertised for request in an email, I was SO excited. I have a fascination with Jack the Ripper, as I'm sure millions of others do. Something about the fact that they never caught or convicted anyone for the brutal murders they committed just makes for an interesting subject. And the amount of theories surrounding it all, any one of them could be true! So the fact that this book was based around the Jack the Ripper murders had me from word go, and when I saw that I had been accepted to receive an ARC? I just about jumped over the moon.

The story begins with a funeral, this is where we first meet Susannah, a 27 year old woman who is burying her last remaining family - her Grandmother. She then moves on to London to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. The story is written in present but does jump back and forth a little bit as we are told information through memories in a way. I found the beginning third of the book to be a bit slow going, the pacing just wasn't working that well for me, but I understand that the story and characters needed to be set up. The problem was, the pacing didn't get better. Nearly the entire book was rather slow and tedious at times. I was hoping for the murders to be more of a front runner in the story line, but it was more of a secondary thing that was happening that helped drive Susannah's story along. So this disappointed me a little bit.

However, the last 20% of the book was absolutely amazing. I wish the entire book had been like this, though I get that it had to build to a climax, the building was just taking way too long in my opinion. I think my problem was that I was so focused on the fact that this book included a Jack the Ripper story in it, and I didn't really want to hear about anything else. The narration was done extremely well and at times I found Susannah to be quite unreliable so I wasn't sure whether was she was recounted actually WAS happening. So that was fantastic.

The characters were very well written though I didn't overly care about them that much. I cared about Susannah in that last 20% of the story because I wasn't sure what was going to happen to her, so I guess I cared about one of them in the end, but before this I just didn't really care. I was waiting for something to happen and it just took so long to get there.

I do love what Whitfield did with the Ripper story, and I loved the little twist that was added in towards the end, that was absolutely masterful. Whitfield shows that she is incredibly good with her craft, her ability to write a historical fiction and have it feel like you're actually walking down those cobblestone streets of Whitechapel, the smells, the dialect. It really does show how good a write Whitfield is, to be able to pick you up and drop you in the middle of it all is just wonderful, it really helps round out the story.

All in all, this was an interesting story, though I felt like I was reading more about the domestic struggles of a woman in 1888 than the Jack the Ripper case, though I do believe that was in part my own fault for assuming that the Ripper murders would be at the forefront of the story. If you like a well written, true to form historical fiction, don't go past this one as you may enjoy it. Though to be warned, there is some gory scenes where the ripper murders are spoken about in some detail.

I have always been fascinated by the Jack the Ripper mystery, so when this book came up, its premise intrigued me, especially coming from a woman’s point of view.

Kudos to Clare Whitfield for this very clever and compelling debut novel.

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me the chance to read and review this book.

It wouldn't surprise me if People of Abandoned Character becomes a bestseller in genre fiction (namely, Thriller and Historical Fiction) as well as general fiction. It's a powerful story on women's historical place in society and the horrific conditions the poor lived and worked in, while also being a tantalising, dangerous mystery about Jack the Ripper.
Yes, it's dark, but not so dark that the reader gets dragged down into it - the narrator is so matter-of-fact about it all (for the most part) that the reader can feel appalled, shocked, or grieved at humanity's history but then move on in the story almost immediately. It's the kind of historical fiction book that confronts you with what humanity is capable of and asks, please, not to repeat history, but doesn't linger in the guilt or beat you over the head with what your ancestors did. And it's these kind of books that are the most powerful, because they push you to realisation and change while giving you your own, personal passion to do so.

I am not sure how I feel about this book. It started well with the determined Susannah getting on well as a nurse after her grandmother and guardian died. Susannah was 27 at this point, plain and with no prospects. She is courted by Dr Lancaster who turns out to be an extremely unpleasant character once the honeymoon is over. The arrival at their new home in Chelsea was reminiscent of 'Rebecca' with Mrs Wiggs seeming to be a very Danvers-like character. Susannah's character seemed to change from here on and she became very isolated and dependant. And abused. And introspective. She thought her husband could be responsible for the spate of grisly murders that were being perpetrated on the prositutes of Whitechapel. Lots of gory and unpleasant details of the locality, the injuries and the people. None of which I cared for. There was something missing in this book for me to give it a good star rating but the ending was worth the wait. I think it might have been a better read written in third person and not first person from Susannah's POV. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

At the age of 27, Susanna is finally free to follow a career in nursing in London. Three years later she marries Thomas, a surgeon. Within weeks she realises she has made a mistake. Thomas is not a loving husband and his behaviour to her is aggressive and violent. Worse, Young women are being murdered in White Chapel and she suspects Thomas is involved.

I'm afraid I did not like this book. The characters are unpleasant including Susanna who has a dark secret at her core. I found the plot hysterical at times and overall it was far too graphic for my liking. Thanks to net galley and the publisher for the ARC.

I had no idea what to expect from this but, wow, for a debut novel in a genre I rarely read, kudos to the author for this book. Susannah Chapman, a plain woman with few prospects, has been trapped caring for her ailing grandmother for years. When granny finally expires Susannah, aged 27, is finally free to pursue a career in nursing to provide her with a basic living. She moves to London and qualifies as a nurse but then she meets the dashing and charming surgeon, Dr Thomas Lancaster. The doctor, although five years younger than her, pursues her with vigour. Finally, realising this is probably going to be her best stepping stone out of grinding poverty, Susannah accepts his proposal and they marry.

Well, as soon as the honeymoon was over, the honeymoon was over and Thomas becomes distant and absent and altogether strange. If she questions him or makes any comment he would snap at her. Susannah has to console herself with her comfortable lifestyle and the hostile company of the housekeeper, Mrs Wiggs. But when news of murdered prostitutes in the Whitechapel area is reported Susannah becomes very interested indeed. Thomas’s strange overnight absences do seem to coincide with these murders.

This story is a kind of re-imagining of the Ripper murders of Victorian London told from a woman’s perspective. It was really well done and you get an appreciation of how fragile the lives of women really were in our not too distant past. They certainly weren’t credited with any ability to think for themselves. One of the reasons I don’t read much historical fiction, particularly from this era, is that for anyone who was not well off life was so very squalid. This was described in all it putrid detail in this book. All in all it was very well written, the characters jumped off the page and some descriptions were so vivid they made me cringe. I enjoyed this book a lot. I think it would appeal to anyone who likes historical fiction and even many who, like me, generally don’t! Many thanks to Netgalley, Head of Zeus and Clare Whitfield for my copy. My opinions are my own.

Anything about Jack the Ripper immediately catches my attention, and I love to see different authors imagining who he could have been. This book had rave reviews already, so I was very excited to dive in.

At first, Susannah seems a headstrong and independent woman who isn't afraid to go after what she wants. However, as soon as she is married she seems to change completely and actually becomes a very annoying character. I think I would have actually preferred the story if told from a different point of view!

The mystery is engaging and kept me on my toes right up to the end! The plot is fast paced and even to my amateur eye, the historical background seemed well research. I wish I had loved this book since it had so much going for it, but I just wasn't interested in a single one of the characters! A great shame.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a period of history that particularly interests me but I thought the idea that Jack the Ripper was your husband was an intriguing hook. I found the main character Susannah a bit too whiny. She goes on and on and on about how dependent she is on her husband for her financial survival and so has to keep quiet about the things she sees. This in spite of the fact that she owns property and has a career as a nurse. In many ways she shows herself to be a strong woman, leaving her home at 27 to make her way in London, but she marries and all of a sudden she is helpless. When things start to unravel coincidences pile up. I did like the way she tied the murders of Jack the Ripper, particularly his last one to her story but it wasn’t enough to raise my rating above a 3 Star.