YA Book Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Title: Stalking Jack The Ripper

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #1

Genre: Young Adult Mystery. Young Adult Horror

Publisher: Jimmy Patterson-division of Little Brown 

Pub Date: September 20, 2016

Pages: 326

My Copy: Digital Book on my Kindle

Book Summary:

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. 

Book Review:

A very good book that has you guessing right from the beginning and keeps you absorbed. Love how Audrey Rose grows as a young woman and person. I like how we are given a mystery and things need to get solve.

I like that Audrey Rose Wadsworth is not like other girls of her time. She is very different in a time when women were not given that many opportunities because of the time period. Audrey is actually assisting her uncle in dissecting dead bodies. She thinks this is an opportunity for her to learn and pursue her interests in medicine and not have to worry her brother or father, or her aunt even when she comes to visit. Things happen that she has to be aware of. We learn that someone is killing women and that they are at first of a certain economic status.

We also learn that Audrey has to disguise herself as a boy when she attends her uncle’s lectures during his class lecture. So during the lecture, Audrey meets Thomas, the boy who had informed her uncle of more murders and that this might be the work of the serial killer. I also like how her two worlds, start to collide in ways she doesn’t expect.

Audrey and Thomas begin a spirited debate on why this serial killer is picking the women he does for various reasons. Then we later find out that the killer has started removing organs. What happens is something very interesting. Audrey has a brother, Nathaniel and her father starts not to be well. So when her father leaves to get some rest in the country home, her aunt comes to help make sure Audrey behaves like a young woman of her standing. She does like getting new clothes and decides to play it very good.

I also like how things get more intense and surprising when her uncle is accused of being the ripper. So this makes her father and brother really upset and they forbid her to pursue anymore medical studies or even try to help his brother and their uncle. Yet things get more intense as more women are dying and Jack as he now has identified himself is getting more bold and somewhat more grotesque. There also seems to be a connection forming with Thomas and Audrey as they are trying to decipher clues…

These clues lead to some scary conclusions and things you don’t expect. Also Jack writing a letter that helps clear her uncle’s name leads to some other disturbing things about her family and their past. Things she never even knew about. I also like how Thomas is there for Audrey when something goes wrong or her assumptions are accurate. He also protects her as well and doesn’t let her do stupid things. I feel like Thomas really cares about Audrey and his feelings seem genuine. They have to work together for a lot of reasons. I thought it was well done.

The twist at the end of this book really was unexpected and not what I thought it was going to be. What happens near the end was totally a surprise. We find out who Jack the Ripper is and it was someone that Audrey knew or thought she knew. We learn this family member kept a lot of secrets and this went back to her mother’s death. What ensues is absolute chaos, a sad but tragic death and somehow a new future. 

Audrey and Thomas are going somewhere new and exciting. To a medical school abroad. Plus this makes things much more interesting to see what’s ahead in book 2 of this series. 

Rating:

Four Hearts