about the book
Seven years after Jack the Ripper’s killing spree in London, similar murders are happening on the streets of New York City. The commissioner of police, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Pinkerton Detectives are on the case. All sorts of steampunk gadgetry comes into play as the chase for the killer gets heated.
Fourteen-year-old detective wanna-be, Carver Young is an orphan trying to survive at the financially strapped Ellis Orphanage. He’ll do anything to get information about his parents, and that includes breaking into the offices and riffling through the files. What he discovers is a cryptic hand-written note from his dad. Could his father still be alive?
With the orphanage failing, Carver is apprenticed to grumpy retired Pinkerton Detective Hawking. Carver quickly gets caught up in agency politics and the gruesome Ripper murders. Encouraged by Hawking, Carver investigates the case on his own, calling on fellow orphan and aspiring journalist, Delia, for help. The search for both the murderer and Carver’s father takes the young boy all over the city, from the underground sewers to the top society shindigs, from basement crime labs to a walled insane asylum, from relative safety to life-and-death chases.
What Carver uncovers is the Ripper’s handwriting is an exact match to the note left at the orphanage. Could his father be Jack the Ripper?
This is a case where knowing the truth could be far worse for Carver than staying ignorant. Let’s face it, Reader, if you’re not ready to face the monster, you shouldn’t look under the bed!
about the author
Stefan Petrucha was born in the Bronx and cut his teeth on comic books, science fiction, horror, and paranormal stories. By the age of ten, he was compulsive obsessive about writing his own stories and by high school, he was self-publishing. In college he discovered all sorts of great literary works and realized that the best fiction always brought the reader back to reality.
To pay the bills, he’s been a tech writer, an educational writer, a public relations writer, and an editor for trade journals. But fiction is his passion, and he has written over twenty novels and hundreds of comics and graphic novels. His works have sold over a million copies worldwide! Stefan has also made appearances on the A&E television series Paranormal State, and currently teaches classes at the University of Massachusetts.
Stefan is blown away by the vibrant ideas found in young adult literature. He doesn’t write any differently for adults and younger readers. He keeps a journal for each book he writes, which includes a detailed outline that can be amended as needed. He writes in sequence but will jump around when he gets a stray brilliant idea or comes up with a single really cool word. Although he finds writing the first draft exciting, rewriting is more rewarding. He gets a big kick out of making a scene just right.
Every year he makes a living by writing, he counts himself as extremely lucky. Fortunately there have been many such years, although he says he’s still not yet at that lofty Stephan King rank for publishing advances! That means much of his time is still spent struggling to pay the mortgage. There is little time left for reading, playing video games, or practicing the piano.
Stefan lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife Sarah Kinney, a fellow writer, and their two daughters, Maia and Margo.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Epic Reads
Author interview: Cynsations
Author interview: Book Equals
Book trailer: Ripper
Also by Stefan Petrucha:
The Rule of Won. Walker Books for Young Readers. 2008.
Teen, Inc. Walker & Company. 2007.
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