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(3 / 5)
Stalking Jack the Ripper #1
There was a lot that I liked about Stalking Jack the Ripper, but the execution just didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Audrey is a forensic scientist, in a time when forensic science is still in its infancy and often scorned by polite society. To top that, Audrey is an intelligent woman in a man’s world, and working with dead bodies is thought to be grotesque and highly improper for any woman, not to mention one of status. But Audrey can’t help her curiously, and I admire her ability to scorn the attitudes of others and forge her own way. I also loved the idea of setting such a story around the real and horrifying events of the Whitechapel Murders. Who isn’t fascinated by the mystery of Jack the Ripper, one of the world’s first serial killers?
Unfortunately, I found the pacing and structure of the novel very off-putting. The mystery seemed to come together in stretches and leaps, instead of in a fluid and natural way. I found our heroine jumping to conclusions, without really feeling that she had the evidence to support them. She also seemed to flip flop in her conviction and feelings frequently, which I found annoying. This is most noted in her interactions with her father, where she would switch between meek and defiant, seemingly, at the drop of a hat. The banter between Audrey and Thomas also seemed a bit forced and unnatural, especially at the beginning, but it seemed to find its stride as the novel progressed.
As a debut novel, I can excuse some of the issues with pacing as the novelist trying to find her voice. While I wish the story felt a little more polished before going to print, I have hope that Maniscalco will develop her style a bit better as time goes on.