Review: Capturing the Devil (Stalking Jack the Ripper #4) by Kerri Maniscalco

Title: Capturing the Devil

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #4

Previous books in this series: Stalking Jack the Ripper (#1) | Hunting Prince Dracula (#2) | Escaping from Houdini (#3)

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Genre: YA, mystery, historical

Publication date: September 2019

Published by: jimmy patterson

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis: In the shocking finale to the bestselling series that began with Stalking Jack the Ripper, Audrey Rose and Thomas are on the hunt for the depraved, elusive killer known as the White City Devil. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse has them fighting to stay one step ahead of the brilliant serial killer—or see their fateful romance cut short by unspeakable tragedy.

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.

Determined to help, Audrey Rose and Thomas begin their investigations, only to find themselves facing a serial killer unlike any they've heard of before. Identifying him is one thing, but capturing him—and getting dangerously lost in the infamous Murder Hotel he constructed as a terrifying torture device—is another.

Will Audrey Rose and Thomas see their last mystery to the end—together and in love—or will their fortunes finally run out when their most depraved adversary makes one final, devastating kill?

My rating: ★★★☆☆

“Shall we see about solving another gruesome murder, my love?”

I was SO excited to read this book! I mean, they’re going to hunt down H.H. Holmes? Yes please! I really liked how the series came full circle, what with the city of Chicago fearing that the many murders they’ve had may be the work of Jack the Ripper. Oh if Chicago only knew...

Audrey Rose gets a hold of her brother’s notebooks, and not only does she discover that he had a freaking colleague, but that the colleague was freaking H. H. Holmes! Dude!

Nathaniel was never the Ripper!!! Holy shit! The ripper and H. H. Holmes are the SAME fucking person! Nathaniel couldn't do the murders so he had Holmes do them and then he used the organs that were taken from the victims. My mind is 🤯 And I don’t know what was up with the characters, but I put this together pretty early on in the book. So when we’re a good 300 pages in and the characters were only just realizing that Nate wasn’t the Ripper I was confused. I thought we had already established this? I thought it was pretty clear when they first read the journals. Did I jump to conclusions or are they just dumb? I don’t know. Lol.

Anyway, I did think all this was pretty cool! Especially because I had seen the documentary called American Ripper, where a descendant of Holmes thought that Holmes was actually the Ripper and basically the whole docuseries was trying to prove that. It was pretty cool.

Look at me being mostly positive 😆 I know my review of Escaping from Houdini was me just complaining a lot, but...

*I’m not going to complain I’m not going to complain I’m not going to complain*

You know what I hate? I hate being tricked into reading a contemporary romance (a historical romance, in this case) when I thought it was going to be a mystery thriller. Yeah, this has happened before!! 🙄 (Looking at you There’s Someone Inside My House 👀 UGH). But surprise! This is actually a historical romance! 🙃 You wanted thrills and a mystery and a hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers America has ever known?? Haha NOPE! That's just backburner stuff!! 🙃

At least that’s what it felt like to me. There was SO much drama! Relationship drama, political drama, and that is not what I signed up for! This was a historical romance that every once in a while remembered it was supposed to be solving a mystery 🙄 I’ll try to go through the drama really quick here because it was just dumb and annoying.

1. Audrey and Thomas got engaged. Cool, cool. But they're getting married within a fortnight?? DUDE. They've literally known each other for mere months! I tried hard to not let this bother me, but they made it hard. Especially because it had only been DAYS since Audrey was doubting her relationship with Thomas because of freaking Mephistopheles!! URGH.

2. Fine, they’re getting married, but if there is no murder or other unfortunate event at this wedding, I will be very disappointed. WAIT NO! Thomas being betrothed to someone else is not the type of unfortunate event I wanted!! 😭 At least there was no love triangle there.

3. Speaking of love triangles, guess who brings Mephistopheles into the conversation? 🙃 Audrey comparing that situation to this was dumb! Why? Because Audrey lied to Thomas’s face during that situation, meanwhile Thomas didn’t know about this engagement! UGH. It’s not the same thing!

4. Jfc... Thomas is betrothed to someone else and Audrey is worried about what society will think of her and her cousin?! And she's regretting the sexy time because of her vIrTuEs? Ugh! I hate this. She just kept talking about being a blight on society and it was annoying! Who freaking cares! (I KNOW that’s what times were like back then, I know. I just don’t care 🤷‍♀️ Lol)

5. Audrey won't consider having an affair with Thomas, again, because ViRtUeS, but she totally did think about what it would be like to join Mephistopheles's carnival thing?? When THAT would ruin her reputation too? Hypocrite much? UGH.

6. Thomas's father is an asshole. He threatened to marry Thomas’s sister, Daciana, off if HE doesn't marry. Oh, and not to mention that the creeper she would be married off to, his wives disappear! 😱 That’s horrible! This whole thing is just business for the father maybe, but when it becomes business at the expense of his children's happiness? Dude no. Go fuck yourself.

7. Things ended up working out and Audrey and Thomas ended up getting married like two years later, so yay or whatever. But THIS is what I had to go through! This is not what I signed up for! 😭

This was just dumb. I just wanted to get back to the murders 😭 On page 202 of the book, in the middle of this drama, and the last autopsy had been on freaking page 84!! There was not much on the case since then, maybe a page or two of research, but that’s it! Honestly, the only thing that saved this historical romance for me was Audrey’s grandmother 😆 Throwing “conventional” out the window, getting a letter from a certain someone, and just being a general badass... I loved her!

And just like I mentioned in my review of the last book, I didn’t hate this. I really didn’t. I mean, I didn’t appreciate being tricked into reading a historical romance, but overall it wasn’t a bad read. I really like Thomas and how sweet he is. And I really liked the banter between the characters. The climaxes of these books have been underwhelming, and I was really hoping the one in this book would be good cause H.H. HOLMES! It just had to be good! And you know what, I liked it pretty okay. I mean, this series isn’t known for its action, but it wasn’t bad. Now if you want some good action, go to Jennifer Estep and read any of her books! SO good! But anyway, this was fine. I liked the idea of the series, but I don’t think it was for me.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊