“Come forth and enter if you dare. Come and live freely. Welcome to Chicago.”
The 411: Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell have made it to America and their first stop is the Chicago World Fair. But trouble cannot just leave them alone. A string of gruesome murders and disappearances leads Audrey Rose, Thomas and Uncle to jump on the case. And as they run into old friends along the way, Audrey Rose realizes that she might be closer to discovering the killer’s identity than she thought.
Thank you JIMMY PATTERSON presents for sending me a beautiful finished copy and swag 🙂
So, some background just in case you didn’t know – CAPTURING THE DEVIL is the fourth and final book in Maniscalco’s STALKING JACK THE RIPPER series. The series began with (you guessed it) STALKING JACK THE RIPPER (2016), HUNTING PRINCE DRACULA (2017) and ESCAPING FROM HOUDINI (2018). The premise begins with our heroine, Audrey Rose Wadsworth, who defies the expectations of her wealthy upbringing and choses to spend her time with her Uncle, who works with forensic and mortuary science. But when they begin seeing in influx of corpses, they begin to fear that there is a serial killer in their midst. Audrey Rose’s adventures with Uncle and everyone’s book boyfriend, Thomas Cresswell, take them across Europe and even overseas. All four books are historical, gothic YA fiction novels from JIMMY PATTERSON presents.
Now unlike many, STALKING JACK THE RIPPER didn’t knock me off my feet. The story was interesting enough and I loved Audrey Rose and Thomas, but I wasn’t completely sold on continuing with the series. But I am sooooo glad that I decided to read HUNTING PRINCE DRACULA and then the rest of the series. I liked each book incrementally more and CAPTURING THE DEVIL was my absolute favorite of the four.
ENTERING SPOILER TERRITORY
The only thing that felt slightly contrived was the conflict between Thomas and Audrey Rose. Would it have changed the story if they successfully got married at the beginning of the book? No. Just cut down on some drama and sexual tension. But it just seemed (to me) like an unnecessary plot point. However, I did enjoy the #GIRLPOWER moment when Audrey Rose refused to be the “other woman” in this scenario and passed up the opportunity to still be with Thomas if he was forced to marry his betrothed.
MY RATING: ✰✰✰✰