I mentioned this book when I was about halfway through it and said that I was enjoying it. Now that I’ve finished it, what’s the verdict?
Meh.
The general plot is straightforward. Someone is recreating the Jack the Ripper killings, targeting women with the same names as the original victims. The cops and several authors who are experts on the original murders are on the case.
On the plus side:
The writing is great. It flows well and is rife with little amusing observations. For example, I liked this tidbit from the POV of the killer:
***
Next to the picture was a small wooden box which, when he opened the lacquered lid, played a song that he finally identified as “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music. “Great,” he sighed to himself as he replaced the lid. “Now I’ll have that tune stuck in my head for the rest of the day.”
***
The characters are well-formed and diverse in personality.
The con:
At first, the mystery was intriguing. By the midpoint, everything was starting to drag. I didn’t feel rewarded for pushing through to the end. The climax felt rushed and not very climactic. (There’s a damsel in distress situation, but the damsel doesn’t seem that distressed.)
Other readers who are really into Jack the Ripper lore might love this. There’s nothing technically wrong with the book; I just didn’t find it very compelling. I would give this a 3.5, generously rounded up to a 4.
One amusing thing: As a teenager, I saw a TV movie about Jack the Ripper operating in modern-day Arizona. This movie gets a call-out in the book, in this dialogue:
“Anyway, it’s this terrible movie about how they moved the London Bridge to Arizona or someplace like that, and then the Jack the Ripper murders start up all over again.”
