Goodreads Synopsis:
Presented by James Patterson’s new children’s imprint, this deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion…
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.
Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.
The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.
So I’m going to start this review off by saying, that although this book was fairly entertaining, I guessed which character would turn out to be “Jack The Ripper” when I got about three chapters in. I felt the book did too good of a job directing me away from the murderer, which in turn, made it much too obvious who it would be in the end. Unfortunately, this made the book less enjoyable for me. However, it was still a decent read.
As I said, the story itself was entertaining enough. I did find that there were times I grew bored with the amount of unnecessary details and scenes within the plot, once again, I presume, to take the readers attention off the overall “whodunit” aspect of the story and to keep you thinking. I really enjoyed the use of accurate historical facts throughout the story and I found the characters fairly enjoyable, particularly Thomas, who gave off some pretty fantastic Sherlock Holmes vibes. Our main protagonist, Audrey Rose, was a different story for me. I found her a complete contradiction half the time. Although she is described as a highly intellectual girl, one moment she would be ranting about womens rights and how women are just as capable and intelligent as men, only to then knowingly put herself in dangerous situations to impress a boy. This bothered me a lot and I found myself rolling my eyes more often than I’d have liked.
The story has a lot of potential, but I feel like the pacing was a little off. I don’t read a lot of murder mystery style novels though, so perhaps this is indicative of the genre. The story felt, to me, painfully slow to unfold with too much useless information given to try and maintain the mystery. This fell a little flat for me and made me care less about the whole story.
Over all, I didn’t mind Stalking Jack The Ripper. It had its moments and I really enjoyed some of the characters witty quips. I loved that we got a bit of romance as a sub plot, but even that was frustrating at times. It wasn’t until the very end that I felt any urgency to the plot that I really enjoyed. I highly doubt I will ever read this book again, because of this, I am giving it 3 stars.
Aimee at the Bookshop 