Blog Tour Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Stalking Jack the Ripper
(Stalking Jack the Ripper #1)
Kerri Maniscalco
Release: September 20, 2016
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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.

Review:The only things I knew going into this book was that it was receiving good reviews in the book blog community and that the heroine was a Victorian lady who does autopsies on corpses which gets her involved in the Jack the Ripper investigation. I was already inclined to like the book based on the Victorian Lady of Science alone. Then I read the first chapter and I immediately fell in love. Any book that starts out with a grisly autopsy is a book I'll probably adore and it only got better.

I found myself a little in love with Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her intelligence and tenacity. She wants to be more than what her society has planned for her and she is going to do all in her power to insure the future she wants. It gave her a delightfully modern feel while still feeling realistic for the time period. My favorite thing about Audrey was that she is unapologetic about being herself. She embraces that she can do forensic science and still take pride and pleasure in her dress and appearance. I adored that about her. I was immediately pulled into her story and into the investigation from the first. I've always had a weird obsession with Jack the Ripper and I was impressed by how the author used the details of the actual events to push the story forward. This is one of the best written Ripper novels I've ever read.

Audrey Rose is brilliant and a very capable women in a lot of aspects but she has no street smarts. She would frequently sneak out at night when there was a murderer running amok with little thought to the danger. Thankfully, she was joined most of the time by the dashing and logical, Thomas Cresswell. I adored Thomas from the moment he appeared on the page! He kind of reminded me of a more likeable Sherlock Holmes. He's highly intelligent and logical in a way that is more than a little arrogant but he has a sweet and emotional side to him we really never see in Sherlock. He often joins Audrey on her adventures instead of sending her home not because he feels the need to protect her (which he does) but because he doesn't want to miss out on the action and the chance to spend time with her. He's adorable.

I totally ship these two together. My friend, Katie, from the Polished Page Turners made the comment that in the early parts of the book that Audrey Rose and Thomas reminded her of Jack and Phryne from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and OMG! she's totally right! Also, if you haven't watched that brilliant cinematic historical detective masterpiece, you should go fix that right now.

Stalking Jack the Ripper was an excellent example of the awesome historical YA fiction on the market today and I can't recommend it enough to everyone who can handle a little bit of blood and gore. I seriously can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans Audrey Rose and Thomas get into in the next book!

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

    

  5 / 5 Stars!

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.

Kerri's Social Media

Tour Schedule

September 20
A Reading Nurse 
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September 21
A Thousand Words A Million Books
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September 22
A Crave For Books
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September 23
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September 24
Wishful Endings
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September 25
Bookish Wanderess
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The Best Books Ever
Library of a Book Witch
Once Upon a Twilight

September 26
coffee and characters
Ink of Blood
Storybook Slayers
Roadside Reader
The Bookkeeper's Secrets