I, Ripper
A Novel
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter takes you deep inside the mind of the most notorious serial killer of all time: Jack the Ripper.
In the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five prostitutes in London’s seamy Whitechapel District. He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the dark corners of our imagination, the paradigm of the psychotic killer. We remember him not only for his crimes, but because, despite one of the biggest dragnets in London history, he was never caught.
I, Ripper is a vivid reimagining of Jack’s personal story entwined with that of an Irish journalist who covered the case, knew the principals, charted the investigation, and at last, stymied, went off in a bold new direction. These two men stalk each other through a city twisted in fear of the madman’s blade, a cat-and-mouse game that brings to life the sounds and smells of the fleshpot tenderloin of Whitechapel and all the lurid acts that fueled the Ripper headlines.
Dripping with intrigue, atmosphere, and diabolical twists, this is a magnificent psychological thriller from perennial New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter, who the San Francisco Examiner calls “one of the best storytellers of his generation.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in London in the fall of 1888, Hunter's intriguing standalone provides fresh insights into the Jack the Ripper case through three different, though not always coherent, perspectives. An opportunistic reporter, who refers to himself as Jeb, gets a break when he's promoted from being a substitute music critic to being the lead journalist on the Ripper killings. Interspersed with Jeb's narrative are extracts from the killer's diary, whose mannered language ("Truly, no creature can understand its own obliteration") requires a hefty suspension of disbelief. The third voice is that of a prostitute, who describes the atmosphere in the East End in unsent letters written to her estranged mother. For the most part, Hunter (Dirty White Boys) sticks closely to the historical record. The eventual revelation of the serial butcher's identity may stretch credulity, but details such as the ingenious speculations about the graffiti message that the murderer left on the night he slaughtered two prostitutes are sure to fascinate Ripperologists.
