Rory Deveaux moves from Louisiana to London to attend school and as soon as she does Jack the Ripper strikes. The same crimes from 1888 have begun happening again in present time. The murders are happening the same way, at similar places, and on the same dates as the original murders. Modern day London is filled with CCTV monitors and while one of the murders was caught on tape, the murderer wasn’t. The strangest part is that Rory is seeing people that most others can’t see.
I’ll admit I’m a sucker for serial killer books and stories set outside of the US draw me in as well. A Jack the Ripper storyline with some paranormal things thrown in – I’m there. The story starts off with getting to know Rory and her new school. While schools in London are quite different from those that I am familiar with here in the US, I was really happy that the author explained these differences as Rory was learning about them as well.
Rory’s stories about her family back home in Louisiana are great and a story with them featured as main characters would be something I would be interested in reading as well. This gives the book quirkiness to it that other murder mysteries lack. The descriptions the author gives of all of the different locations of and around the school are great and helped me to envision Rory’s world. The paranormal aspect does take a while to come into play, as it is about halfway through the book, but it does have a different twist to it. More characters are introduced while moving through the story and they are all interesting and worth getting to know. I didn’t guess what was really going on until it was all revealed and that always makes me happy. At the end a few aspects are left unanswered, leaving an opening for a follow-up that I would absolutely read.
- This reviewer also blogs at http://booksake.blogspot.com
- Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
- Date of Pulication: September 29, 2011
