Escaping from Houdini/Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco ready check

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Original title: Escaping from Houdini
Pages: 512
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #3
Format: e-book
Genres: Mystery

Blurb:    
  Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery.

My thoughts: 
    I was going into this book expecting at least the same degree of enjoyment that I got from books one and two and I was really puzzled to find a really bad story and a degradation of the characters. 

    First of all, Audrey Rose turned into a flimsy shallow girl, putting her nose in other peoples' affairs, and entertaining herself in the company of a person with disputable reputation. Her attitude towards
Thomas Cresswell is incomprehensible, she is keeping secrets from him and constantly seen with a different man alone. All her "Trust Me", "Love you" "I know what I am doing" etc. are just pathetic. It is not clear what exactly she is doing with the artists. What is required of her by this con artist? To stand with an apple on her head at the last performance? 

      Cresswell present in this book is close to nothing. He is a secretary during an autopsy. He is sitting idly and waiting for her to choose when she is running with a different man. He cannot even be jealous and fight for her as this will portrait him as a proprietor and an anti feminism character.

    And, secondly, since this book is a mystery and there is a killer on the loose, there must be some detective work done by our characters. But alas, while Audrey Rose was enjoying herself at the carnival, Thomas was watching her to fall in love with a flashy arrogant con artist (not even a scientist) within a week, bodies kept piling up. They did nothing to find the killer. I believe if the murderer was not so theatrical they would still not have a clue who it is. He practically was explaining every step of his doings, at the final show, exactly as he planned it and no one was even close to uncover him. 

So altogether absolutely boring and illogical book with a very irritating female character.

 

 Rating:  

    2/5  

 

 

Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Original title: Capturing the Devil
Pages: 512
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #4
Format: e-book
Genres: Mystery

Blurb:    

  Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell have landed in America, a bold, brash land unlike the genteel streets of London they knew. But like London, the city of Chicago hides its dark secrets well. When the two attend the spectacular World's Fair, they find the once-in-a-lifetime event tainted with reports of missing people and unsolved murders.

My thoughts: 

    I do not know why I decided to torture myself with this book, but hope dies last. I have already read 3 previous books and I kept hearing positive reviews about the final one. Altogether, I was going to DNF it just about 7 times. I was bored to death by it. Audrey Rose turned to absolutely intolerable person. For a such young person there were too much "I know", "I can", "I will do". So much talking and so little done. On one page she is refusing to be a mistress and two or three pages later she is in his arms. She is always armed and never uses the scalpel. She is constantly thinking over the same issues: love for Thomas, sadness over her brother's death and fear of the murderer, her dress again and again, pages and pages on. In this book the mystery is secondary and it is so chaotic. All logic behind the investigation is unclear. Altogether, the book is a 19th century soap opera with a happy ending. Endless boredom, it is better to pretend books 3 and 4 never happened and Audrey Rose and Thomas lived happily after escaping Romania.

 Rating:  

    1/5