The Stalking Jack the Ripper series is one of my favourite series of all time. I just can’t get enough of the writing, the characters, the romance, the mystery… Just everything about it is amazing. So when the cover, the premise and the title was revealed for Escaping from Houdini, I was SO SO SO excited!

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a travelling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.

But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The strange and disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea. It’s up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even more passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer’s horrifying finale?

Now, I’m guessing that you’ve seen that I’ve given this book 3 out 5 stars. Yes, I know. I nearly cried when I gave a Maniscalco novel my ‘average’ rating. I can’t even blame this book on the hype, because I had hyped up the previous 2 books a lot as well. What you’ve got to understand is that the characters of Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell completely carry this series. Don’t get me wrong, the plots themselves are magnificent as well, but the characters bring the magic. So when the characters seem off, the whole story is thrown off balance, which is what happened in this book.

 

“We women could be called creatures, if only the men who said such careless words accepted our claws were fearsome things when we decided to scratch.”

― Kerri Maniscalco, Escaping from Houdini

 

Normally, I love Audrey Rose, but in Houdini, she was a hot mess. SHE LOVES CRESSWELL. SHE WANTS CRESSWELL. So when this weirdo, masked guy called Mephistopheles (what kinda name is that??!!) shows up, she starts swooning over how mysterious he is, blah blah blah. I was so done. Part of me being so angry about this DOES come from the fact that I completely and utterly ship Thomas and Audrey Rose. I am there for that relationship, so when ANYTHING threatens to ruin it, I get angry. But also looking at it from a critics perspective, it just wasn’t a clever thing for Maniscalco to do. It didn’t progress the story at all.

I think the most of the reason that I gave it 3 stars was because of how Audrey Rose acted. She said at first that the whole reason she was spending a lot of time with Mephistopheles was because of the bargain, and I whole heartedly agreed with her at first that it was the right thing to do, but when he started being really inappropriate with her – knowing full well that she was with Thomas – and she didn’t tell him to back off, that’s when I got angry. Let me just lay it down: WOMEN ARE NOT OBJECTS. Audrey Rose should not have been seen as a piece of meat by Mephistopheles and something for him to ‘possess’.

 

“Truth is often compared to a blade,” I said. “I question those who marvel when it pricks.”

― Kerri Maniscalco, Escaping from Houdini

 

Also, I can’t believe that Audrey Rose would have second-guessed her feelings towards Thomas after them being together for ages, over someone that she met a week ago. Don’t get me wrong, I can completely understand that she would be apprehensive marrying Thomas, because that is ONE BIGG-ASS STEP IN A RELATIONSHIP to take, so obviously you have to make sure that you’re ready for that. So that’s completely realistic. What ISN’T realistic is for her to second-guess her feelings. I was really hoping that Maniscalco was different from other YA authors where she wouldn’t use relationship drama to move on a story or to create a love triangle. IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE AT ALL and I was so done with this book about 65% of the way through.

Along with the relationship between Thomas and Audrey Rose being put on the back-burner for this book, so was their professional relationship. Audrey Rose started – mainly – working with Mephistopheles to try and figure out who had killed the people on the ship and to see Thomas completely forgotten about, broke my heart. Part of the reason why I love the two previous books was because of the banter between Thomas and Audrey Rose. I love the sarcastic comments that they make towards each other and how they would bounce off each other when solving crimes. We hardly had ANY of that in Houdini.

 

“If you wish to go, I’ll never make you stay. I might not do and say the proper thing all the time, but I do know that I love you enough to set you free.”

― Kerri Maniscalco, Escaping From Houdini

 

You’re probably thinking why in the world I still gave it 3 stars… I still enjoyed the book, to a degree. There were still elements of the story, such as the murder mystery that I really liked. I had no idea who was the murderer so when we found out, I was completely surprised.

I just really really hope that Capturing the Devil is better because, honestly? I just want to forget that this book ever happened.

 

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