The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery

 

The Sixth Victim (A Constance Piper Mystery) by Tessa Harris; Jack The Ripper Takes Center Stage in Ominous Supernatural Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Now we turn to that unsolved historical mystery, Whitechapel, East End London’s most infamous son, Jack The Ripper. This famed and unidentified serial killer of female sex workers is the primary antagonist in The Sixth Victim: A Constance Piper Mystery by Tessa Harris. This is an effective Historical Mystery which captures time, place, and important themes about the degradation of women in the patriarchal Victorian Era.

Flower seller Constance Piper has to support her family but right now Whitechapel citizens are in fear. The latest victim “Dark” Annie Chapman was found after previous victims, Martha Tabram and Polly Nichols. Every woman walks home in terror and anxiety of the killer that could come out of the shadows to strike. However, Constance has a secret weapon at her disposal. She can communicate with ghosts and has reached the interest of Emily Tindall, a teacher who is concerned about a missing friend and students who have also vanished. Constance and Emily work together to solve these murders and disappearances.

This book captures the setting intricately with both time and place. The Victorian Age revealed a sharp division between rich and poor which is revealed through the contrast between lead characters. 

Emily lives around the middle to upper class while Constance dwells with the working lower class. Emily visits ornate wealthy houses while Constance lives in city slums. Emily's closest circle dines on five course dinners on fancy dishes while Constance’s friends and family face imminent starvation and homelessness. Emily's friends hide marital struggles and family disputes behind closed doors that are protected by status and connections. Constance's friends’ struggles are out for the world to see and are augmented by the lack of concern from those same resources. 

Rich and poor live in separate worlds and the twain does not meet often. However Emily and Constance act as bridges between them. Though Emily's status would be considered wealthy if not comfortable she does not ignore the plight of others. As an educator, she understands the importance of learning and teaches reading to working class women. She helps them realize that they don't have to limit themselves to an impoverished life and they can aspire to a better one. 

Emily recognizes that these women often had very few options which often resulted in domestic violence, alcoholism, addiction, prostitution, and illegitimate pregnancy. By educating them, Emily gives opportunities and options to break the cycles around them.

Constance considers Emily a mentor so their exchanges are full of warmth and support. Constance is the only person in her family that can read and feels like an outsider among her peers whose goals often go as far as their next meal or finding a partner for the night. 

Emily wants to open a shop, leave the East End, and build a comfortable nest egg. One of the more revealing moments is when she is dressed in a nice suit and speaks professionally to a wealthy woman. She surprises herself with her polished refined behavior even as she hides nerves underneath.

Besides the attention to class struggles, this book is adept at recounting the Jack The Ripper case and the overall violent world in which they take place. We are shown the “Canon Five” victims: Polly Nichols, Dark Annie Chapman, Long Lizzie Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly. Kelly's story is particularly heartbreaking as she struggles with an unwanted pregnancy and a troubled common law marriage. 

Harris also offers some speculation. A potential victim is Martha Tabram, who at the time was considered a Ripper victim and even now there's some debate whether she was one or not. There is also the appearance of a headless unidentified female corpse, a real life unsolved mystery at the time that was also attributed to Jack.

The details are there: the notes, the graphic violence, the potential suspects, and the theories. The book plays on speculations and profiles to depict the potential suspects. In depicting them, Harris comments on xenophobia, fear of authority, and dehumanization of different classes. 

Even without the Ripper, there is a dark undercurrent of violence and crime. There is domestic abuse, forced prostitution, child trafficking, and fraudsters posing as mediums. In fact it is during a session with a fake medium when Constance first displays her real clairvoyant abilities. 

It is a mean world where Jack can hide in plain sight because he fits in. It's a world where Victorian moralists lecture others, particularly women, about propriety while at the same time committing violence towards women and maintaining a patriarchal system in which they can't report it.

With The Sixth Victim, Tessa Harris uses the Jack The Ripper murders as a springboard in this dissection of Victorian class division, subjugation of women, and depraved violence.