Teens will read some gory, gruesome stuff and love it – come to think of it, so will plenty of adults. This imagined finale to the story of Jack the Ripper is – forgive me – one ripping good read.
Ripper
by Stefan Petrucha
Philomel Books
ISBN: 978 0 399 35524 3
Carver Young is an orphan in the care of the Ellis home for orphans in New York, which is now closing. His only real chance to not find himself on the streets is to be adopted at one last open house, where oddly enough, he does catch the interest of someone who seems bent on testing him and turns out to be the head of a secret detective agency. Carver becomes his protege just as a string of sensational and gruesome murders grip the city and naturally, he wants to follow some leads about that, as well as hoping to discover something about his father, though his only lead is a letter that had been sent to the orphanage years earlier.
There is a series of plot twists, betrayals, and truths that get turned upside down along the way, and Carver is running from clue to puzzle and back the whole time as he is led on a merry chase by both the killer and his mentor, who is determined to let him learn to swim on his own. Add to this a host of historical characters such of Teddy Roosevelt, a bunch of fun gadgets and inventions, and a setting in Victorian New York, and it is a really fun ride with a little bit of a steampunk flavour.
My favourite parts? Aside from the non-stop action and constant shifting that kept me guessing along with Carver, this book features a massive final twist, and a very interesting and entertaining endnote in which the author talks about which parts were based on real people and inventions, and which were fictional. At 426 pages, this weighs in as a big read, but it feels fast, and I didn’t want to put it down from start to finish, so even teens who prefer something slimmer should be drawn in enough to tackle this.