I'm not a Ripperologist, so I started reading I, RIPPER with very little knowledge of the details surrounding Jack the Ripper's murders. Author Stephen Hunter delves right in, taking us to the scene of the first crime with the first sentence of his new novel. It's all told in retrospect, alternating between the killer's own diary and the memoirs of an aging journalist who covered the story. The device allows for a somewhat unique perspective.

The journalist, known as Jeb, recalls the key details of the crimes and pieces together his own case. During those dark weeks of 1888, he wants to make his name by naming the murderer; two-and-a-half decades later, he vividly recalls for us the media frenzy, the violence of the scenes, and the resolution of the case which, until now, has remained hidden. Jack, of course, is telling the story more immediately, in the hours or days after each gruesome killing, and he has his own focus, though he is careful about the details he lays out in his journal.

About a third of the way in, I started watching Ripper documentaries on YouTube and reading some of the websites that specialize in Ripper lore (how it would have helped if I'd used the bibliography provided by Hunter on the final pages). I wanted to know if the novel was accurate or if the author, as some do, played fast and loose with the truth. From what I can tell, it is the former. Hunter does have his own interpretations of the evidence, which is how he crafted his plot and presents his own idea of what might have happened to Jack.

I don't want to give too much away, but the true identity of the killer wasn't a surprise to me. Perhaps I've read too many mysteries to miss the signs. The full name of the journalist, while it was a surprise, did result in my saying aloud, "Oh, come on" -- though again, as improbable as I found it, my limited research did support the idea.

If you are, like me, a connoisseur of historical fiction and mysteries; if you, like me, enjoy the occasional Ripper-based movie or documentary; or if you are a Ripperologist looking for some new twist to the familiar tales, you will find much to enjoy in I, RIPPER.

Book Summary

The electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter takes you deep inside the mind of the most notorious serial killer of all time: Jack the Ripper.

In the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five prostitutes in London’s seamy Whitechapel District. He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the dark corners of our imagination, the paradigm of the psychotic killer. We remember him not only for his crimes, but because, despite one of the biggest dragnets in London history, he was never caught.

I, Ripper is a vivid reimagining of Jack’s personal story entwined with that of an Irish journalist who covered the case, knew the principals, charted the investigation, and at last, stymied, went off in a bold new direction. These two men stalk each other through a city twisted in fear of the madman’s blade, a cat-and-mouse game that brings to life the sounds and smells of the fleshpot tenderloin of Whitechapel and all the lurid acts that fueled the Ripper headlines.

Dripping with intrigue, atmosphere, and diabolical twists, this is a magnificent psychological thriller from perennial New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter, who the San Francisco Examiner calls “one of the best storytellers of his generation.”