Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book.

I’ll do my best to make this spoiler free.

Plot:
Sort of a Sherlock Holmes style YA mystery set in Victorian era London.
a 1st person POV from young Audrey Rose Wadsworth (who is the Watson) to Thomas’ Sherlock. Together, the two study forensic sciences under Audrey Rose’s uncle and investigate the mysterious and brutal murders in White Chapel.

Characters:
I’m only going to talk about the two main characters:

Audrey Rose is a strong female character who doesn’t surrender her feminity to be strong. She balances the life of a daughter to a wealthy lord with her fascination of forensic sciences while carrying an internal struggle of a difficult family relationship. She has to navigate proper London etiquette in the pursuit of her passion and keep her studies a secret from her overprotective father.

Thomas is an arrogant know it all who can back it up. He’s written in the style of Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. He has his moments of being charming, annoying, suspicious, and brilliant. We learn his backstory all at once, but since it was through dialogue it didn’t come across as an info dump.

Writing style:
I found the occupations of the characters to be fascinating and well researched. The prose was direct, with some poetic language woven in (but never overwhelming). I loved that it was 1st person POV it was incredibly important to know what Audrey Rose was thinking at all times. Though the plot was about catching Jack the Ripper, the juicy conflicts were all internal and having access to her thoughts made this story riveting.

I am excited to continue reading this series.

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