Customer Reviews

Jaclyn the Ripper

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I'm not normally one for complex time-traveling adventures but there was something intriguing about this book that made me decide to read it. As a buff of Jack the Ripper lore it had that appeal not to mention being a play on The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. This story is a sequel to Time After Time, both the book and the 1979 film. In that story, Jack the Ripper used Wells' time machine to escape to 1979 with Well in eventual pursuit. Well uses the machine to transport the killer far into the future. Wells returns to 1893 with Amy Robbins to live happily ever after...or so they thought...

In the sequel, Amy returns to the present to let her parents know that she is safe and living in the past but her trip accidentally frees Jack the Ripper from the future. Using the technology of the future, Jack transforms himself into a female, hence the name "Jaclyn" and travels back to 2010 to begin a new killing spree in Los Angeles, and vows revenge on Wells and Amy. Now in modern day, Wells must somehow track Jack down in a complicated new world of computers and cell phones.

Thirty years is a LONG time between stories and I'm not sure that Alexander is going to recapture the audience he had with that story that relied a great deal on the romantic relationship between Wells and Amy. The sequel is more of a thriller and largely succeeds although Jaclyn is somewhat less sinister than Jack.

After dispatching Jack the Ripper from 1979 to a far future, H.G. Wells and Amy Catherine Robbins travel to his time 1893 (see Time After Time) where they marry. However, so her beloved parents would not worry she returned to tell them what became of their prodigal daughter. In 1906 Wells is worried about his wife who failed to come home, Wells traces her to 2010 Los Angeles.

Meanwhile Jack managed to anchor in 2353 before returning back to 2010 Los Angeles as a woman. While Wells searches for his Amy, he notices an alarming pattern that reminds him of Victorian Whitechapel and San Francisco circa 1979; Jack is back and he obsessively believes he must stop the killer for all eternity.

With two fascinating twists since the events of Time After Time, Jaclyn the Ripper is an exciting fast-paced thriller that never quite gels as the key two antagonists never quite come across as the naïve good vs. the sinister evil of the first book. Still fans of Time After Time, book or movie, will enjoy the return engagement as Jaclyn the Ripper still enjoys the kill.

Harriet Klausner