Title: Stalking Jack the Ripper
By: Kerri Maniscalco
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery, Historical Fiction
Pages: 366 (Hardcover)
Format: ARC
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.
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My Top Five Raves of Stalking Jack the Ripper
1. From start to finish, Kerri Maniscalco’s writing is gritty, passionate, and bold. Each chapter kept me alert and intrigued, and I could not wait to discover what was on the next page.
2. This novel meshes history, Gothic, mystery, romance, and science together so superbly. I felt like I was watching episodes of Sherlock, Bones, Penny Dreadful, and Pride & Prejudice clashing together as one.
3. Audrey Rose is sassy, independent, and headstrong. As our main character, she’s a heroine I enjoyed rooting for. I loved her feminist attitude and her snarky rebuttals she delivered to those who doubted her capability to hold her own in a male-dominated society.
4. This is the perfect read for Fall/Autumn. Through a Young Adult lens, Maniscalco integrates Jack the Ripper’s savage, grotesque murders in a setting that is flawlessly reminiscent of the dark and dreary, Victorian streets that plague many notable nineteenth-century classics. Stalking Jack the Ripper is a perfect mystery book to curl up with when the weather is chilly, an oak-burning fire is crackling, and the leaves are changing colors.
5. The verbal repartee between Audrey Rose and Thomas is fiery, daring, swoony, and hilarious. I loved how blatantly forward Thomas is in Audrey Rose’s presence, and how accepting he is of her passion in science. I could not get enough of these two characters.
FINAL INSIGHTS!
Overall, I thought this book was brilliant. I enjoyed playing detective, and admired Maniscalco’s research and presentation of madness, science, and feminism in the nineteenth-century. I am a fanatic of books that take place during the Victorian Period, and adding a new retelling of Jack the Ripper had me drawn to this story like a moth to a flame. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, romance, and a whole lot of mystery, then you definitely need to add Stalking Jack the Ripper to your to-be-read list.
About the Author:
Kerri Maniscalco grew up in a semi-haunted house outside NYC where her fascination with gothic settings began. In her spare time she reads everything she can get her hands on, cooks all kinds of food with her family and friends, and drinks entirely too much tea while discussing life’s finer points with her cats. Stalking Jack the Ripper is her debut novel. It incorporates her love of forensic science and unsolved history, and is the first in a new series of gothic thrillers.
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rants and raves of a bibliophile 