See, I really looked forward to this. I loved Hunting Prince Dracula so much, so I had this one pre-ordered and even got the exclusive edition to feed my love for Cressworth, but this just left me underwhelmed.
Audrey Rose, Thomas, and her uncle are on board at the RMS Erutria. They watch the magic show of the ship, and suddenly the girl seated next to Audrey Rose dies from a gruesome cause. Over the course of the book, more and more young, rich women are murdered, and it’s up to the trio to solve the case.
Since the setting of this book is locked onto a ship, all the characters do is just dress up for the evening, attend the magic show, witness someone die in front of them, do some investigations, and fool around at midnight. This made the book repetitive and very monotonous and made it really hard to get through. Because of the setting, there was barely any suspense and it was difficult for me to find out who the killer was (unlike in the previous books) because clues and hints were barely given this time around. Compared to the first two books, this one was a lot harder to solve because the motive wasn’t made clear and there was no way of finding out who the killer is until you actually get to the reveal because it was just so sudden and random. In SJTR and HPD, we get clues as to who the murderers might be. Not in this one.
But out of all the flaws in this book, the one that really made me give this one a lower rating compared to the other two would be because of Audrey Rose. I was EXTREMELY frustrated with all her actions and decisions. This is not the same Audrey Rose from Stalking Jack the Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula. She was independent, empowered, fierce, and not easily swayed with words. I did NOT recognize her at any point in this book.
Houdini barely even appeared. He was uninteresting as he was bland and I really felt like the author just needed a title. Also, Thomas was sidelined so much in this one that I genuinely felt like it was a spin-off of Audrey Rose and Mephistopheles instead.
Anyway, I still enjoyed reading it because of the few Cressworth moments we had. I love Kerri Maniscalco’s writing because she’s really good at vivid descriptions and being effortlessly witty through Thomas’ lines. But I really can say that this is the weakest novel in the series so far. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to read the next one, but I hope it will be better.
Title: Escaping From Houdini (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3)
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Genre: Young Adult, Murder, Mystery, Romance
Source: Hardcover
Publication Date: September 18, 2018
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Rating: 3/5
