Ripper (original 1994; edition 1994)

by Michael Slade

Series: Special X (4)

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169	4	161,212	(3.93)	5

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Member:	hyarrow
Title:	Ripper
Authors:	Michael Slade
Info:	Hodder & Stoughton General Division (1994), Hardcover, 368 pages
Collections:	Your library
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Ripper by Michael Slade (1994)

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Showing 4 of 4

I wish I hadn't.

SomeGuyInVirginia | Dec 20, 2016 |

I really got into the beginning of this book. It started off the way I like with a gruesome murder and went onto explaining the different classifications of serial killers and it was interesting.

Then because the murderers were involved in the occult, using Tarot, etc. I feel the plot got too involved and detailed with the occult. I didn't really need to know everything there was to know about dating back to its roots.

It picked back up with the "Mystery" weekend on Deadman's Island but it was like starting a new book again because I had lost interest. (

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Diane_K | Jul 14, 2015 |

The last third of this book makes up for the first two thirds. I thought this was a very confusing book. In the first two thirds you get a lot of information; many character (with no apparent main character), information about serial killer (especially Jack the Ripper) and many departments of the Canadian Mounties (and the acronyms). A lot of this information could have been cut to make a more comprehensible story. Only in the last third of the book does everything come together and becomes apparent who the main character is.

What confused me even more was Slade's tendency to constantly switch by calling his characters by their first and last name, often switching between sentences. There are many characters and switching between what he calls them I was constantly thrown out of the story by having to recall what character he is referring to.

I almost stopped reading this book but I'm glad I persevered because the last part is good and hard to put down. (

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Rumpeltje | Sep 22, 2013 |

Jack the ripper is dead, Right? don't bet your life on it! Who would slash the body to shreds, the rip the face off America's foremost feminist - and hang her out to die? who whould take a pair of twin hookers on a terro trip that made death innocent and sweet? Who would turn a secluded island gathering of bright and beatiful people into a carniva of carnage? What grim and grisly figure stood dripping knife in hand at the end of the most horrifying trail of death and deception Detective Robert DeClerq and Zinc Chandler ever followed? A lot of people were dying to find out... (

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ct.bergeron | Jul 5, 2007 |

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Canonical title

Ripper

Original title

Ripper

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Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Deadman's Island, British Columbia, Canada

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Important events

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Epigraph

And there shall come up in [Babylon's] palaces,
nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof;
and it shall be a habitation of dragons
and a court for owls
~ Isaiah 34:13

Dedication

For Ted and Roger

First words

Deadman's Island, British Columbia
Samhain, 1925

Wherever else hell may be, it's in the human mind.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Book description

JACK THE RIPPER IS DEAD, RIGHT?
DON'T BET YOUR LIFE ON IT!

Who would slash the body to shreds, then rip the face off America's foremost feminist - and hang yer out to die?

Who would take a par of twin hookers on a terror trip that made death seem innocent and sweet?

Who would turn a secluded island gathering of bright and beautiful people into a carnival of carnage?

What grim and grisly figure stood, dripping knife in hand, at the end of the most horrifying trail fo death and deception Detectives Robert DeClereq and Zinc Chanlder ever followed?

A lot of people are dying to find out.

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When American feminist Brigid Marsh is found hanging dead in Vancouver with her face flayed, local Mountie Nick Craven calls in Robert de Clerq, commander of Special X, an elite division of the Mounties tackling foreign crime in Canada. Marsh's murder has the hallmarks both of Satanic ritual and serial murder and, as other grisly deaths ensue, they eerily follow a pattern established in Jolly Roger, a new paperback thriller only on the verge of publication.

As de Clerq uses the novel to trace the motivations of the group of killers back to the same demons that drove the original Jack the Ripper, a coven of mystery writers and an ex-police chief find members of their group being killed off as they try to solve the mystery on an isolated island. In his third thriller ( Headhunter ), Slade blends a classic murder mystery game with occult arcana to such an intricate degree that he may lose all but the most dedicated mystagogue. However, he does share trenchant insights into the way childhood sexual abuse and fantasy inform the development of psychopathic killers.

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