Review: Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

And I’m back with the next installment in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco. I loved the first two books in this series. They were delightfully gory and completely suspenseful! And the chemistry between Audrey Rose and Thomas was just perfection! So needless to say, I had very high expectations of the third book!

Here is the 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. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a traveling 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?

It sounded like it would be a great mystery, just like the previous two! But somehow I found myself less invested in this one. It may have had something to do with Audrey Rose flirting with someone else while my poor Thomas was sitting there broken-hearted. Just maybe. I’ve heard previously that Audrey Rose is a frustrating character and, while I could sometimes see it, I always overlooked it. But in this particular book, I felt like it was glaring me in the face. I was annoyed with almost everything she said and did. Probably because she was hurting Thomas.

But honestly. They were on this boat for seven days? And in that time Audrey Rose forgets how much she loves Thomas and starts falling in love with someone else? How fickle are you Audrey Rose??

I also found that the reveal of the murderer was not as grand in this one. While I picked the murderer in the first book, the reveal was still shocking. And the second one, I had no idea until they announced it! While I also had no idea in this one, I still felt like it was a little bit forced and not as spectacular as the first two murderer reveals were.

So now I’ve complained about it, I will say that I still love the world Maniscalco has built. I do love Audrey Rose and Thomas. And I love their adventures together. So even though this one didn’t quite meet my expectations, I still enjoy it as a piece of the SJtR series.

This gets a ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨out of 5 stars. If you like the previous ones, you’ll enjoy it for the progression of the story, but I don’t think it’s the strongest one in the series. Sadly 😞 Grab your copy here!

Have you ever been excited for a book and then been slightly disappointed with the result?? Tell me about it!

Happy readings loves!

– B x