The Five

I shelved this as “true crime” because the subjects of this book are all linked by Jack the Ripper, but I really loved how this didn't focus on the murderer at all, really, and didn't delve into all the gore and details of the murders themselves. There are a lot of ethical issues with true crime, especially when it comes to murder, but I feel like this did a good job of avoiding those and really telling the stories of these women. I got really drawn into the stories, and even though I knew how they would all end, I found myself hoping that they'd find a way to escape what I knew was going to happen. The author gets so much detail from public records and really manages to make these women into fully realized people.