In 2016, Jimmy Patterson Books (an imprint at Little, Brown and Company) published the first book in Kerri Maniscalco’s series Stalking Jack the Ripper. On the cusp of adulthood, Audrey Rose Wadsworth is a lord’s daughter with a forbidden interest in the macabre. Despite the societal requirements in place for any young woman in London during the Victorian Era, Audrey Rose continues to focus on her studies.
With the help and teachings of her Uncle, Audrey Rose is able to study the practice of forensic medicine. During this first book, as the title might suggest, Audrey, her Uncle, and her Uncle’s new apprentice Thomas Creswell (yes he very much matters), are set on an investigation of some of the most gruesome murders in history as they hunt down Jack the Ripper.
With a 4-star rating on GoodReads, it is clear to see that readers love this book—myself included. I read it in only a day, and couldn’t wait to get the next book. Unfortunately, I did have to wait to get the next book.
Book three in this series is Hunting Prince Dracula and takes Audrey Rose and Thomas to Romania, right to the best European school of forensic medicine. Of course, their ability to track down serial killers is so great that they can’t resist stumbling into the home of the notorious killer Vlad the Impaler.
Kerri Maniscalco does such an amazing job at weaving together fact and fiction, using real stories and factual moments in history to help elevate the world around Audrey Rose. Any factual changes Maniscalco makes are marked in the back of the book with an explanation for their necessity. I was shocked to learn how much research really went into these moments and how close to reality they are.
Escaping from Houdini follows Audrey Rose and Thomas on their trip to New York, where they’ve been requested to help solve yet another series of gruesome murders. Of course, their week-long boat trip across the Atlantic isn’t void of excitement. While on the RMS Etruria they find themselves enraptured by the travelling Moonlight Carnival. When women aboard the ship go missing, and many turn up slain, Audrey Rose and Thomas are tasked with finding the murderer before they dock in New York, and risk losing the killer forever.
The third book in this series is my favorite for a number of reasons: The cover, the introduction of a new character that is extremely fascinating, and the incredible details that Maniscalco tied together by the end of the series with the inclusion of the RMS Etruria. (I wish I could explain this without giving away the ending of the entire series, but I can’t. I’ll just say, if you have the last book, go to page ___ and read paragraph ____).
That last book is Capturing the Devil. This installment was released in September of 2019, and start with Audrey Rose and Thomas’ in America, faced with their new investigation. While they begin in New York with a killing pattern that looks strangely familiar, their investigation takes them to Chicago, where dark secrets hide behind the World’s Fair, where the Murder Hotel has been created by a killer so terrifying and so cunning, Audrey Rose and Thomas fear their investigation skills might not be enough to stop him.
I read this book in a night. Starting in the evening, I pushed myself to finish it, because I couldn’t stop. It was a suspenseful and fascinating read to the very end. And I am so devastated that it has ended. This series was not one I read immediately, one after the other. I did read them farther apart than I would’ve liked, but I was able to pick them up and just start, no matter how long it had been. While that sounds simple, I am so grateful that Kerri Maniscalco wrote this series that way. I love this series and I’m so sad it’s over, but I am so thrilled to have read it. I will read anything Kerri Maniscalco writes because of how much I enjoyed this series. I can’t recommend it enough.