***mild non-ruining spoiler, 2nd paragraph***
Rory is off to a British boarding school and almost immediately there’s a murder nearby. Alarmingly, it’s very Jack the Ripper-esque, and in fact was committed on the same date as one of the 1888 murders. More alarming: there’s another one, and the M.O. and date line up again. Even more alarming, Rory seems to be the only one who saw the suspect.
It turns out she’s the only one who saw the suspect because she was the only one present who COULD see the suspect. I call this a mild spoiler because though it’s probably all over the book jacket, it’s still pretty cool when it happens.
If there’s someone like Rory, and someone like scary guy, are there MORE like them around? Oooh, things are not what they seem! Yay!
So, yeah, killer on the loose, Jack the Ripper fetishists, secret police, some cool London history/details, teenager drama, teenager romance which could have been developed more, and Maureen Johnson doesn’t shy away from having nasty things happen to people we like. I liked this book. It was fun, kinda scary, and I’ll probably read the next one. I was actually scouting it for my 13-year-old daughter, but since I liked it, she can’t now. Damn it.
Since this is a series it makes sense that the ending is a little abrupt and cliffhangery, but it was still slightly unsatisfying.
