Customer Reviews

Ripper

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I borrowed this book from my brother who has never read it still to this very day. At the time, I was looking for a good scare. I scanned his vast array of novels and found Ripper. After reading the back cover, it sounded psychotic. I started reading and was instantly drawn into the world of Slade. I was amazed by the crisp storytelling and couldn't help but wonder what a great film this book would make. It was dark, distrubing and cruel. Much like Seven my favorite movie. After reading this novel, I can honestly say I was afraid to sleep much less, look out the window. Purely haunting. I'm determined to find all of Slade's books. Although, I have a few, I still lack some. It's too bad most are no longer in print or extremely hard to find. I gave it four stars because, at times the story dragged some and seemed to be going nowhere, but then it would pick back up again in no time. The last couple chapters are the best in the book. Or better yet, the whole island trip was the greatest part. Lots of carnage and mystery. If you have the chance to read Ripper I advise you to pick it up & continue reading. It gets deeper and deeper with each coming chapter. I await the next book by Slade, it will be a killer!

I gotta hand it to Michael Slade's "Ripper." There's enough plot lines and stories going on in this book, it could be two or three books in one! And one can't help but admire his blatant rip-off of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." The whole thing on the island mystery murder trip is a novel in itself, and Slade pulls the stops out on the way he disposes of the writers who have come there. Ironically, the killer's identity follows very similarly the path of Ms. Christie's classic, so don't be too surprised when the identity is revealed. With that said, what can one say about a book that features not only this, but two gruesome serial killers, a devil cult that goes back many years, witches, sadism, bestiality, and some of the most descriptive gore and sexual perversion ever captured on ink. Whew! This book does demand a lot of bending the rules. Give it to Slade, though. It's good, and well developed. The characters of LeClerq, Craven and Zinc Chandler are exceptional. Of course, since this is a series, this thriller leaves some storylines unfinished, but hopefully they will be resolved in his next one. This is my first Slade; Some of his earlier works are very hard to acquire, but I do have the follow-ups to "Ripper" so I'm anxious to see if he maintains his bold approach to the genre.

If Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr had a child together that child would be Michael Slade.

Ripper is the fourth in Michael Slade's incredible Special X series and it is just that; a tribute to Christie and Carr.

Special X is too busy investigating a series of gruesome murders to give a lot of attention of a gathering of the world's greatest mystery writers but, when the writers start getting murdered in impossible ways and by maniacal methods, the lone representative of the RCMP must try to survive long enough to discover the mystery of the Ripper.

Michael Slade, the best selling author of 11 Special X novels to date, crafted a mystery masterpiece with Ripper, a loving, blood soaked tribute to Christie's "And then there were none," and Carr's "The Three Coffins." Slade deals out this ever-twisting story like a three-card-Monte dealer; constantly daring you to solve the riddles, and then delighting in proving you wrong.


Diabolical, gruesome, twisted, and brilliant, Ripper is one for the record books.

Michael Slade has done it again.

This was my first Slade reading and it was great! Scary, suspenseful, well written, and greatly detailed. With a great mix of legend, facts and characters. I will now be reading all of his books--I guess I'm a Sladist, too! Can't wait to get the others!!

My eighth grade English teacher warned me when I picked up my first Slade book that it was "intense." Years later, after Headhunter and Ghoul, I realized what she meant when I found Ripper.

Slade's books center around the Special X unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the Mounties). Recurring characters Zinc Chandler, Robert DeClerq are joined by Inspector Nick Craven in the search for a killer hell-bent on recreating Jack-the-Ripper's crimes in scenic Vancouver.

Slade, a pseudonym for a group of Canadian attorneys specializing in the 'criminal insanity' defense, demands you have a vast attention span and key eye for detail. Flashbacks, dream sequences and odd descriptions abound. Also, blood and gore cover the pages from the start and continue to do so until the last page is turned.

While some authors lean on violent imagery like a crutch, Slade doesn't need to. The true horror lies not in graphic descriptions of murder, but in the deterioration of the human psyche that leads to the aforementioned graphic descriptions of murder.

Ripper is a serial-murder-mystery fan's delight. Turns and twists keep the reader from discovering the truth until the exact moment Slade deems it time. Take it from a devout Sladist - pick up Ripper and pick up a nightmare you'll be unable to put down.

I've been a fan of Michael Slade's since a friend lent me a copy of "Ghoul" several years ago. What elevates Slade above the dross one generally finds within this genre is the amount of historical fact that provides the backdrop to the action. Slade excels in this respect. With "Ripper" the fictional crimes are inspired by the activities of a true-life Jack The Ripper suspect in the person of Roslyn D'Onston Stephenson (the favoured suspect in the opinion of at least one author, Melvyn Harris, whose "The True Face of Jack the Ripper" is heavily referenced by Slade in his book). If you're looking for a highly entertaining, if bloodthirsty, read, then this is the book for you. If you're an amateur Ripperologist, Ripper will send you scurrying back to Amazon.com to order some of the books Slade used to research his novel.

This was actually the first Slade book I read, and was really the greatest. If you like booby traps that kill people in unusual, and quite gruesome, ways, you will love this book. It's fast paced, except for some history background that will slow the story down a little bit. But a book could not be called a Slade book if it didn't have some interesting historical story to back it up with. A great read and will keep you on your toes til the very end.

Slade does it again with another GREAT "fireside" horror story. Slade interweaves horror, detective novel, and psychological thriller deftly - leaving you breathless and SLEEPLESS

400 pages of insanity, wall to wall chaos, gore, sex, and chaos. Slade's best book in my opinion for the simple fact that this novel is unashomed to be what it is - a 400 page trip to hell and back.

Read this book!

((Hoping Burnt Bones and Death's Door are this good...about to read those....))

This book is very macabre and gruesome in the most part with more twists and turns. A really great book that you never want to put down. Michael Slade can really give you goosebumps.