SOURCE: "Serial Murder by Gaslight," in The New York Times Book Review, May 12, 1991, pp. 11-12.

In the following review, Rubins praises The Women of Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper, saying that the characters emerge as distinct personalities and the book vividly portrays the seediness of Victorian London with a fresh sense of horror.

Admirers of Paul West's recent fiction probably won't be surprised to learn that this new novel, despite its title, begins not as a tale of crime or horror but as a quirky, almost dreamy love story—complete with a plucky shopgirl, a real-life prince and a soon-to-be-famous artist as matchmaker. After all, in such books as Lord Byron's Doctor and The Very Rich Hours of Count von Stauffenberg, Mr. West burrowed his way into history from the oddest angles, weaving in and around factual episodes (Byron and Shelley on vacation, the von Stauffenberg plot to...