What if the greatest mystery surrounding Jack the Ripper isn’t who committed the murders, but why those five women were chosen? In this exclusive interview, author Ruth Parry discusses the inspiration behind Five Shadows, the meticulous research that shaped the novel, and why she believes history may have been asking the wrong question all along.
What first inspired the idea?
Everyone has spent 137 years asking who Jack the Ripper was. I found myself asking a different question: Why these five women? The moment I stopped chasing the killer and started following the victims, the story changed completely. Sometimes history isn’t hiding the answer. It’s hiding the question.
What won’t readers find in other Ripper novels?
Another suspect with a sharp knife and a convenient motive? Definitely not. Five Shadows doesn’t try to name Jack the Ripper. It asks whether we’ve been looking in entirely the wrong direction. Readers become detectives, not passengers.
How did Robin Ridley come to life?
Robin earned every scar before she walked onto the page. She’s stubborn, flawed and far more interested in evidence than theories. She knows that the smallest inconsistency often tells the biggest lie. I suspect we’d argue constantly, which is probably why I enjoy writing her. And when I look closely into the mirror, sometimes I catch her reflection.
Why reimagine Elizabeth Stride?
History tends to flatten people into footnotes. I wanted to give Elizabeth Stride her voice back. Whether readers agree with my interpretation or not, I hope they finish the book seeing her as a woman rather than simply ‘Victim Number Three’.
How much research went into Whitechapel?
Enough to disappear down rabbit holes I wasn’t sure I’d escape. Maps, inquests, newspapers, weather reports, court records, street layouts and that was before I put pen to paper. I wanted Whitechapel to feel lived in rather than visited. Once the history felt solid, that’s when the fiction could breathe.
One misconception you hope readers reconsider?
That the mystery begins and ends with Jack the Ripper. I think history has become so obsessed with finding one man that we’ve stopped asking whether something much larger was happening around him.
Was it important that the women felt strong?
Absolutely. Poverty isn’t personality. These women laughed, argued, loved, survived and made impossible choices. History remembers how they died. I wanted readers to remember how they lived.
Did the story ever surprise you?
More than once. One clue sat in front of me for months before I realised what it meant. That’s the strange thing about writing mysteries. Sometimes the story solves itself while you’re still looking the other way.
Who would play Robin Ridley in a film?
I’d rather disappoint every casting director equally by not naming anyone. Robin already exists in my head because a big part of her is me. Whoever plays her would need grit, intelligence and the ability to say everything without saying very much.
What do you hope readers are still thinking about afterwards?
I hope they close the book, look at the ceiling and quietly say, ‘Hang on…’ If they’re questioning everything they thought they knew about Whitechapel, then I’ve done my job.
Will Robin Ridley return?
Oh, Robin isn’t finished. Five Shadows opens a door. Whether she should walk through it… that’s a different question. Let’s just say some secrets don’t stay buried. And then we have the sequel
What’s next for Ruth Parry?
I’m already writing The Concord of Thirteen. If Five Shadows asks one impossible question, the next novel asks twelve more. Some mysteries end with answers. Mine have a habit of opening new doors.
My favourite line of the set is probably this: Sometimes history isn’t hiding the answer. It’s hiding the question.
Five Shadows is now available here
