[A] dark, bloody triumph...convincingly mad, alternatively even-tempered, hallucinatory and cackling...the book's characters are great, its race to capture the murder is beautifully tense, and it has one of the best twists I can remember in any recent historical thriller." - The New York Times Book Review
"Absolutely riveting.... Authentic in tone, well researched, and darkly atmospheric of Victorian London, this historical thriller combines the quiet plausibility of the psychopath in Thomas Harris' Red Dragon (1981) with the menacing tone of Kenneth Cameron's The Frightened Man (2009)." - Booklist
The electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter takes you deep inside the mind of the most notorious serial killer of all time: Jack the Ripper.
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[When I cut the woman's throat, her eyes betrayed not pain, not fear but utter confusion](Simon & Schuster, 19 May 2015, 321 pages, ebook, bought from Amazon, Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge, a book about a villain or antihero)
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I've actually never read a book about Jack the Ripper so I was really looking forward to this. I was sorely disappointed.
I, Ripper isn't a terrible book it's just not terribly impressive.
The book is packed with action and fast-paced as Jeb and the police start to close in on the notorious killer. There is plenty happening to hold your attention as you wonder if they will get their man and unmask him.
So why the three stars, then?
I, Ripper has a lot of violence in it, especially the chapters from Jack's point of view. I don't oppose violence in fiction. I read a lot of thriller so violence come with the territory. However, I felt the violence in this book was over the top at times and unassay.
There is no real character development. Jack never becomes more than a blood-thirsty monster. Even when his true identity is revealed in the final chapter. The book could have been great if Jack had been made of flesh and blood. This would have been more chilling. Instead, he's just a bogeyman streaked in blood and gore. Even when his identity is revealed his 'motivation' is laughable.
I really did not like Jeb as a character. I hated the chapters from his point of view. He is pompous and full of himself and how he will unmask Jack, become a hero and how all of London will idolise him. Yeah, whatever, mate. I could not get behind him.
I, Ripper is an okay historical thriller but there are better books in the world.
