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Ripper

Isabel Allende (Goodreads Author),

Oliver Brock (Translator)

Frank Wynne (Translator)

3.27 · Rating details · 15,840 ratings · 2,363 reviews

Isabel Allende-the New York Times bestselling author whose books, including Maya's Notebook, Island Beneath the Sea, and Zorro, have sold more than 57 million copies around the world-demonstrates her remarkable literary versatility with this atmospheric, fast-paced mystery involving a brilliant teenage sleuth who must unmask a serial killer in San Francisco

The Jackson ...more

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Hardcover, 496 pages

Published January 28th 2014 by Harper (first published December 3rd 2013)

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Jul 19, 2018 Federico DN rated it liked it · review of another edition

The problem with being too nice, is that sometimes you let the bad ones in.

In this novel we learn the story of Indiana, a masseur and exceptional healer. Innocent, sincere, and open to life, but with several love problems. Her path invariably ends up crossing the one of an implacable serial killer. Her young daughter, Amanda, and Ripper, a role playing game, may just be the only thing that might be able to stop him.

Promoted as Allende's first mystery, in truth it appears much more to be a The problem with being too nice, is that sometimes you let the bad ones in.

In this novel we learn the story of Indiana, a masseur and exceptional healer. Innocent, sincere, and open to life, but with several love problems. Her path invariably ends up crossing the one of an implacable serial killer. Her young daughter, Amanda, and Ripper, a role playing game, may just be the only thing that might be able to stop him.

Promoted as Allende's first mystery, in truth it appears much more to be a romance novel vaguely disguised as a crime one. A pretty entertaining read, but with some reservations. The novel takes some time to start, but after the first quarter it becomes really quite gripping, the other three quarters of the book went by in a blur. However, something that I cannot forgive Allende, is that you can't end a 400p novel in a 2p epilogue. That is just simply wrong. It practically lacks of closure whatsoever. Unforgivable. But even still, a worthy read. There is no movie of the book, so less homework this time.

Still remaining, Allende's greatest, "The House of Spirits"; and the movie of course.

Until next time,

-----------------------------------------------

El problema de ser demasiado buena, es que a veces dejás entrar a los malos.

En esta novela conocemos la historia de Indiana, una masajista y sanadora excepcional. Inocente, sincera, abierta a la vida, aunque con ciertos problemas amorosos. Su camino se termina cruzando invariablemente con el de un implacable asesino serial. Su joven hija, Amanda, y Ripper, un juego de rol, puede ser lo único que pueda llegar a detenerlo.

Promocionada por Allende como su primer novela de misterio, a decir verdad parece mas bien una novela romántica levemente disfrazada de novela policial. Una lectura ciertamente entretenida, aumque con ciertas reservas. La novela tarda bastante en arrancar, pero pasado el primer cuarto del libro se vuelve bastante atrapante; las otras tres cuartas partes del libro se nos pasó volando. Sin embargo, hay algo que no le puedo perdonar a Allende, y es que no se puede terminar una novela de 400 páginas en un épilogo de 2, eso simplemente no se hace. Prácticamente carece de cierre. Imperdonable. Pero aún así, valió la pena. No existe una película del libro, así que esta vez hay menos tarea.

Queda pendiente "La casa de los espíritus", la obra magna de Allende; y la película claro.

Hasta la próxima, ...more

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Oct 08, 2013 Susan Johnson rated it did not like it

I can not tell you how disappointed I am in this book. Isabel Allende is a great novelist and I was looking forward to her foray into mystery writing. It was so bad that I couldn't believe she has written it. I puzzled whether some non-talented relative wrote this under her name. It is the only scenario that makes sense to me. It has an unbelievable plot full of holes and cardboard characters.

Let's start with the characters. Indiana is Amanda's mother and a holistic healer. She practices ...more

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Nov 09, 2013 Jenne marked it as didnt-finish · review of another edition

So. Many. Descriptions. Of. People. Have we not heard of "show don't tell"??
It was like, Indiana is a reiki healer. Amanda is a geeky teenager. Ryan is an ex-navy SEAL. Michael is a painter. Carmen is a psychic. with like, a two-page description of what they do and what they look like and who they date and what they read and what scars they have and where they live and who they're related to and what's their job and their pets and etc and etc and etc omg.
(I forgot what all the names were but you ...more

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May 17, 2017 Margitte rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-novel, fiction, reviewed, family-sagas, detective-story, 2014-releases, american-novel, american-author, 2017-read

Isabel Allende was as always a good read. Her new adventure into murder mysteries was delightful, yet a bit drawn out and really over populated with too many characters. For each character there was a comprehensive backstory and it became too much in the end - for me. The book is 512 pages and could have been at least 150 pages shorter. It took most of the book to get all the backstories in before the murder mystery could really pick up speed. Maybe it was planned this way. Most readers had a ...more

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Feb 05, 2014 Jean rated it did not like it

I read in the NYTimes book review that Isabel Allende had a good time writing this, her first "mystery" novel. She might have had a good time, but I didn't. I put it down after the first 100 pages, because the story hadn't really started yet. The book was poorly written and full of quirky characters. Every time some action got started, Allende would stop and do backstory on one of these quirky characters. I gave up and looked at the ending. Reading the last chapter, I'm glad I didn't waste my ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 Carol rated it really liked it

Ripper grabbed me from the start with this line "Mom is still alive, but she's going to be murdered at midnight on Good Friday.". Racing through its last pages an earthquake couldn't dislodge me from my seat. An entertaining good read with a game worked into the plot.

Looks like I'm going to be the rogue reader here. I really liked Ripper and here's why.

Allende does characters studies well and those in Ripper were solid if a bit quirky. I liked them, wanted to know them and cared about what ...more

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Nov 29, 2013 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Busting with terrific-vibrant- San Francisco life energy!

Multiple stories within the 'THE STORY' ...

Engaging Interesting Characters!

Entertaining!!!!!!

****POWERFUL subtle messages**** . In a world of crime, murders, drug trafficking, hustlers, poverty, disabilities, broken relationships, fear, loss, grief, etc.....
"The Only thing that can heal people is Love"!

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May 30, 2014 Kyle rated it did not like it

Shelves: worst-books

Um. Yikes.

So, this is clearly an Allende novel because her style and voice as an author are so distinct. There is no doubt in my mind that she wrote this book.... and that is what is most shocking. Isabel Allende wrote THIS book.

This is a crime novel, not a mystery, but a crime novel. If you are expecting a who-done-it, or spot-the-murderer type of book, then definitely go elsewhere. This novel is about the process of crime investigation... which has never been a prevalent theme in Allende's ...more

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Jul 19, 2014 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was ok

Shelves: its-not-what-i-was-expecting, girly, forgot-to-turn-on-the-oven

There are a number of problems in reading this book.

The Number One problem is Upfront Bald-Faced Lying in the marketing of the book.

1. The title has nothing to do with the contents of the book on any level. It supposedly is the name of a video game. However, the video game is never played or used as a clue or ever referenced again after being used to explain how a club in the book starts. 'Ripper' references nothing about ripping or anything knife-y which occurs in the book. Instead, it is used ...more

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Oct 30, 2016 Snotchocheez rated it it was ok

2 stars

In Isabel Allende's Acknowledgments for Ripper (which to me almost come off, really, as a mea culpa for her 500 page genre buster), she indicates that this was a 2012 project idea by her agent to have Allende and her husband (evidently an author himself, though good luck finding anything about Willie Gordon on Goodreads) to collaborate on a 'Crime Novel', but that they quickly realized "the project would end in divorce". (Prophetic, given their separation announcement a scant two years 2 stars

In Isabel Allende's Acknowledgments for Ripper (which to me almost come off, really, as a mea culpa for her 500 page genre buster), she indicates that this was a 2012 project idea by her agent to have Allende and her husband (evidently an author himself, though good luck finding anything about Willie Gordon on Goodreads) to collaborate on a 'Crime Novel', but that they quickly realized "the project would end in divorce". (Prophetic, given their separation announcement a scant two years later). Ms. Allende, with her husband's guidance, went ahead with the novel anyway.

I always applaud the effort of an established author to think outside the box and try something new (it's what led me to Ripper in the first place), but it becomes immediately clear that Ms. Allende is really out of her element here. Without her bailiwick of magical realism, she flounders. She seems to know her San Francisco ( Ripper's setting) pretty well, but building suspense, establishing a creepy story, developing characters (for both the protags and the potential 'bad guys') are qualities that sputter here. I never really could "buy" the premise here: an online gaming group of six (called "Ripper") culling the headlines for lurid San Francisco murders and competing (I think) to solve the crimes before the police do. Even if this is a real phenomenon, Ms. Allende has no clue how to "sell" this group (of mostly teenagers) and make them believable. We're supposed to believe (thanks to the "game master", a high school girl named Amanda Martín, and her relationship with her father, a SFPD chief investigator) that these teenagers (oh, and Amanda's grandfather) have the investigative wherewithal to outwit the murderers and the police/FBI. It kinda reminds me of a half-baked (YA stalwart) Cory Doctorow novel (though you're not likely to find murder victims sodomized by baseball bats from Doctorow, for instance). Anyway, we learn in the prologue that Amanda's holistic healer mom (named Indiana...really) is abducted by a lycanthropic psychopath, and that they have until midnight to find the culprit who's made off with her.

It's been well over two decades since I've read Ms. Allende's House of the Spirits (which I remember liking a lot, though I couldn't begin to tell you why), but I remember enough to know that Ripper isn't even remotely close to exhibiting the grace and nuance of her first novel. It's almost as if Ms. Allende herself was abducted (like the victims in Ripper) and forced to write this to save her own life.

The entire 500 page endeavor felt forced and contrived, and though she wrote an obligatory Acknowledments section, I think she'd agree with me that this was pretty bad, and one project she'd just as soon forget and move on. ...more

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Feb 18, 2014 Elise rated it did not like it

Sorry Allende, I just can't read this one. I gave up due to so many shortcomings--shallow, two-dimensional characters, a plot with an identity crisis, and no audience awareness. Who is the target audience of a book about grisly murders and YA gamers that references Eva Perron, Charles Dickens, and 1990s-style new age spirituality? I have no idea, but it's certainly not me. I feel so disappointed, so let down, as I have read every one of Allende's previous books and loved each and every one with Sorry Allende, I just can't read this one. I gave up due to so many shortcomings--shallow, two-dimensional characters, a plot with an identity crisis, and no audience awareness. Who is the target audience of a book about grisly murders and YA gamers that references Eva Perron, Charles Dickens, and 1990s-style new age spirituality? I have no idea, but it's certainly not me. I feel so disappointed, so let down, as I have read every one of Allende's previous books and loved each and every one with the exception of "Maya's Notebook" which was nowhere near equal to the stellar quality of her historical fiction and magic realist works that preceded it. I did, however, slog through "Maya's Notebook" out of respect for one of my all time favorite authors. But as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." With that in mind, I gave this one my 50 page test (well 10 extra pages, since it *is* Isabel Allende after all), then stopped at p.60, because life is simply too short to read books that aren't great, and my to-read list is miles long, so I am moving on.

One strange, lightly veiled, autobiographical quote from "Ripper" stood out:

"Blake Jackson was a pharmacist by profession, a book lover, and a frustrated writer until he finally took the opportunity to chronicle the tumultuous events predicted by Celeste Roko. In his novel, he described his grandaughter Amanda as 'idiosyncratic of appearance, timorous of character, but magnificent of mind'--his baroque use of language distinguished him from his peers...The critics were vicious, dismissing his work as magic realism--a literary style deemed passe--but no one could prove he had distorted the events to make them seem supernatural since the San Francisco Police Department and the daily newspapers documented them" (25-26).

It sounds like Allende has an ax to grind with some critic who didn't appreciate her brand of magic realism. My question, why on earth would an author as talented, accomplished, and successful as Allende give a damn about what some clueless and ill-informed literary critic thinks? However, judging from what she said in a recent interiew, she has internalized this criticism that magic realism is passe so much that she has let it adversely affect her latest books. What a terrible shame. And if magic realism is passe, don't tell Eowyn Ivey ("The Snow Child"), Alice Hoffman, Toni Morrison, or countless other contemporary authors who are still turning out beautiful and engaging magic realist works.

Is "Ripper" possibly a brilliant metanarrative, making fun of the kind of crap contemporary audiences want? If so, I guess I will never find out, because I was just looking for a good Isabel Allende novel--richly and historically atmospheric, "baroque" to borrow Allende's term (well written using big words?), with deeply complex and sympathetic characters. "Ripper" has none of these qualities. When I first found out that Allende's new novel was called "Ripper," I thought is was historical fiction retelling the tale of Jack the Ripper, and I imagine that's the kind of story Isabel Allende would masterfully tell. Maybe that could be her next novel... ...more

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Jan 16, 2016 Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star, audio, 2016, new-to-me-author, author-i-want-to-read-more-of

What a busy book! But although there was so much going on, it was not hard to keep track of everything and everybody - unlike some books I have read.

Amanda is the odd one out in her family - she takes after Blake, her maternal grandfather. Strong-willed, feisty and eminently practical. She has a strong curious streak and heads an internet group "Ripper", an online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and a select group of friends scattered around the world.

Her mother, Indiana, is ...more

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Aug 11, 2014 Kaethe Douglas rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, fiction, adventure, ptsd, cats, feminism, romance, domesticity, p-o-c, dogs

Don't read it for the mystery, read it for the things which make an Allende novel so rich and satisfying: a large, diverse cast with complex backstories and complicated relationships. Solving the mystery is the driver of the plot, but it isn't compelling in the way that Amanda's relationship with her family is. The teen characters playing Ripper together aren't explored very deeply. But the adults are. There are the divorced but amiable parents, their respective partners, their parents, their ...more

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Jan 26, 2017 Rebecca McNutt rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, dysfunctional-family, young-adult, crime, murder, mystery, fiction, goth

Ripper is intriguing at a first glance, but I really had an aversion to the main character. An angsty wannabe teenager obsessed with all things cruel, depressing and ugly about the world, she's an emo in every sense of the phrase. The only character I remotely liked was her father, the cop. Oh, and did I mention Amanda is into online mystery role-playing games? I've never been much of a fan of books that try to incorporate cellular phones and the internet into the story. The plot was fast-paced ...more

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Jan 18, 2014 i. rated it really liked it

At the age of 71 the great novelist Isabel Allende has published her first suspense and crime novel. After reading an interview in El Heraldo last year, I could hardly wait for the book to be launched.According to the newspaper,after writing Maya's Notebook, she thought about working alongside with her husband and writer William C. Gordon on a crime novel.However, the collaboration didn't last more than 24 minutes since both of them had different ways of working.

The idea of the name Ripper came ...more

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Oct 29, 2014 Linda rated it really liked it

Recommended to Linda by: SPL Your Next 5

Shelves: audio

Fortunately, after having read some negative reviews of this book, well, many actually, my local librarian recommended it to me and I decided to toss all caution to the wind and give it a try. I'm very glad I did as I thoroughly enjoyed it and have concluded that the book is getting a bad rap.

First to dispel the preconceived notions. This book does not even come close to resembling the much loved and admired House of Spirits with the exception that it is written by Isabel Allende who has such a ...more

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Jul 24, 2015 Diane rated it did not like it

This is a 1 1/2 star read for me. I read it for my bookclub or else I would not have stuck it out to the end. The writing could have been worse, but it also could have been much, much better. I scanned the last 50 pages just to say I finished it at our meeting next week. :-)

There is one thing that I cannot stand is a character that can do no wrong. Unless it is a fairytale, I like my characters to have real weaknesses and faults. It really gets under my skin when an author creates a character This is a 1 1/2 star read for me. I read it for my bookclub or else I would not have stuck it out to the end. The writing could have been worse, but it also could have been much, much better. I scanned the last 50 pages just to say I finished it at our meeting next week. :-)

There is one thing that I cannot stand is a character that can do no wrong. Unless it is a fairytale, I like my characters to have real weaknesses and faults. It really gets under my skin when an author creates a character like Indiana that is completely perfect despite having a quirky character. Allende made her sound like the essential oil saint. I cannot count the number of times I rolled my eyes while reading yet another description of Indiana's sainthood. She made do with hardly any money; was always there when her friends and family needed her; could heal patients just by touching them; she never watched what she ate but kept her perfectly voluptuous figure; every man wanted her as soon as they saw her, etc. etc. Give me a break.

Plus, her relationship with Keller was a complete mess. It didn't even make sense. So.....they were in love and dating for 4 years. However, they were not actually in each others' lives and had nothing in common except for having sex in motels. To top it all off, they were even embarrassed to be seen with each other. WHAT?!?

Then, that Ripper role playing game. It was really just Amanda and her grandfather, Blake, getting information from Amanda's dad that happened to be the chief of police. Then, Amanda and Blake let the other players know what was going on. I suppose a couple of the characters did some Googling of facts and one girl had some psychic tendencies. It was a side story to the real story and was, yet again, another misshapen piece that somehow fit into this illogical puzzle of a book.

I saw the poor reviews going into this book, but sometimes I am better off going in with low expectations than high ones. It is harder to be disappointed that way. Unfortunately, I was still disappointed. I started writing this review with the book rated at 2 stars, but I have now changed my mind. 1 star it is. ...more

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Nov 16, 2016 Amanda rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars

I had some trouble getting started on this book but once I did I tore through it. It has some flaws and I had several quibbles but it was still a really fun read. I have read reviews where it is criticized for telling and not showing but I like Allende's storytelling style and her sometimes overly long descriptions of characters. The relationship between Amanda and her Blake (her grandfather) was terrific and I really loved Indiana she was such a great new age hippyish character.

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Nov 24, 2014 Mauoijenn rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction-who-dunit, kill-kill-killers, dysfunctional-families, hell-no-never-again-nope, dying-dead-death, 2014-rc, serial-killer-psychopath

This was horrible. I'm all for a good serial killer book, but not this. This book was all over the place. I just had to stop 80% in. I was done. Stick a fork in it.

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Jul 21, 2015 Jessica rated it really liked it

Nothing like anything else Allende has written. But still a beautifully written story and a great read.

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Feb 25, 2014 Sanda rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2014-reading-challenge

Whenever I am about to write a "not so great" review it pains me to no end. I have a great amount of respect for the process of writing and for the writers themselves. And to complicate things even more Isabel Allende is one of my all time favorite authors. The way she plays with words, the themes and stories she creates stay with me long after I've finished reading the book. I knew that Ripper would be a departure from her usual style and genre but I embraced the idea of that change. Yet in the Whenever I am about to write a "not so great" review it pains me to no end. I have a great amount of respect for the process of writing and for the writers themselves. And to complicate things even more Isabel Allende is one of my all time favorite authors. The way she plays with words, the themes and stories she creates stay with me long after I've finished reading the book. I knew that Ripper would be a departure from her usual style and genre but I embraced the idea of that change. Yet in the end it felt like such a struggle just trying to convince myself to finish this book.

Amanda, one of the main characters and the designated sleuth is supposed to be 17 years old yet I had to keep reminding myself of that fact because for the most part the character was described as so immature that it felt like she was closer to 12-13 than 17. The game Ripper revolves around a group of teenagers interested in solving crimes so I initially thought that maybe the book will lean more towards Y.A. Then at other moments it sounded as if the book is targeting primarily adult audiences. Almost as if the story itself could not decide what genre to follow.

The pace of the story was excruciatingly slow and each time I found myself even remotely interested in the mystery part of the book, it would end up going on a tangent about something completely unrelated. I learned way more about the background of each one of the characters than about the crimes. Instead emotionally connected to the characters I found myself thinking - "Alright already, I really don't care. Can we get back to the story now?".

The biggest source of my disappointment was the fact that I kept questioning the fact that Isabel Allende's name was on the cover of this book - it just did not seem possible that she would write something of this quality (or lack thereof). The writing felt so choppy and unfocused that as I mentioned before it took a lot of effort not to give up altogether on reading the book. I did soldier on but in the end the only positive thing I can say about the whole affair is that it might potentially make a decent TV show. I still love and respect Isabel Allende, but I wholeheartedly hope that she will go back to writing such unforgettable books as The House of the Spirits. ...more

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Feb 15, 2014 John rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: nobody

Shelves: novels, mystery

Should note that I received an advance reader copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program last fall. Read it and then subsequently reviewed it in November 2013 as a 3-star mystery novel, but certain recent events have transpired that have made me want to re-evaluate my criticism. What follows is the text from my original Amazon review of 11/21/2013, followed by some current thoughts:

Ripper: It's only a game... or is it?

Isabel Allende is an award-winning Chilean author and journalist who ...more

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Feb 11, 2014 Chaitra rated it did not like it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, child-or-teenage-protagonist, mystery, amateur-sleuth

I've read worse books, to be honest. But this one is an all-around fail, so I'm not going to rate it any higher. This is my first Isabel Allende book, and I'm aware she has a fantastic reputation as a magical-realism author (one of my favorite genres). It bugs me that I had to start her oeuvre with this turkey.

What was wrong? Let me see. The main premise of the book is supposed to be a series of murders in San Francisco that a bunch of smart teenagers come together to solve online. It's there, I've read worse books, to be honest. But this one is an all-around fail, so I'm not going to rate it any higher. This is my first Isabel Allende book, and I'm aware she has a fantastic reputation as a magical-realism author (one of my favorite genres). It bugs me that I had to start her oeuvre with this turkey.

What was wrong? Let me see. The main premise of the book is supposed to be a series of murders in San Francisco that a bunch of smart teenagers come together to solve online. It's there, alright - the murders, the RPG. But, mostly it's the story of a lady everyone and their mother is in love with called Indiana. And Indiana is every clichéd thing I hate in fiction. She has a try-too-hard name, she's so innocent butter won't melt in her mouth, but at the same time as voluptuous and sensual as Susannah from Susannah and the Elders, can heal with her mere presence, is so trusting and good and caring, doesn't care a whit for the money she doesn't have. There were times when I physically wanted to shake her into using some common sense. I'm sorry, but this sort of crap is something I cannot deal with for 500 pages, not even in an excellent book, which this is not.

The mystery is abysmal too. The twist is something I didn't see coming, despite there having been just two real suspects. But that twist is so lame that I really thought that maybe Allende was having us on. (view spoiler). It's that lame. I didn't like the set up either - it was all too convenient. Amanda, Indiana's daughter and Ripper gamesmaster, happens to have an especially indiscrete dad who is the Deputy Chief of Homicide. He gives away police records and autopsy reports like candy to his daughter and father in law (who is also involved in Ripper). How ethical is that? The murders had so many surface similarities that I also couldn't believe that SFPD wouldn't even think about putting them together until Amanda the Clever told them to.

The worst possible mistake the book makes though, is in telling this story. A typical chapter starts of with an exchange between two characters, and then Allende goes on a tangent and explains about an irrelevant backstory of the two characters which is uninteresting to boot. This is boring, takes away from any action. Most chapters seem to have only filler material, nothing that advances the plot. All in all, it's a waste of time. I don't think Isabel Allende should have written this book. 1 star. ...more

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Mar 09, 2014 Caitlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014

I have history with Isabel Allende, beginning with The House of the Spirits, a book I first read when it came out in paperback. I was on my honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta and it was a wonderful place to read it and a wonderful story. I've since read many of her books and I always find something to love in them.

In theory, Ripper is a thriller, a bit of suspense, a crime novel. In reality, Ripper is the story of a sprawling network of family, friends, and acquaintances in San Francisco, particularly ...more

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Jan 20, 2014 Naomi rated it did not like it

horrible, horrible, horrible

When I say this isn't your typical Isabel Allende novel, I don't say it because it isn't her traditional historical fiction. I say it because the book was a mess of "discombobulation". I came across a Goodreads review that stated that this book had the feeling that it was written by an inexperienced author and Ms. Allende attached her name to it. When I read that review, I kind of rolled my eyes, but now must state that I agree with that reviewer. I don't know if this ...more

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Mar 15, 2015 Harley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, mysteries, audio, read-2015

Contrary to some negative reviews that I have read, Ripper by Isabel Allende is a fantastic novel. Allende tells the story in a circular manner which seems to bother some people but it is story telling at its finest. The story keeps circling around the characters and slowly expands the world the story inhabits. This style of storytelling is not normally seen in mystery novels. I first discovered the style when I read the novels of John Irving who wrote one of my favorite novels, A Prayer for ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 Vavita rated it liked it

I read an interview with Allende in which she indicates that this book is supposed to be enjoyable and it is in no way transcendent.
Somebody proposed to her and her husband to write a book together mixing their styles (he writes police novels)
They tried it but it didn't work as they were fighting over it the whole time. At the end, she just wrote it alone.

Based on that, I am not angry that this was not the best mystery novel I've read or the best she has ever written. It was ok. There is a lot ...more

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Nov 07, 2016 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

The description of this book has it as a murder mystery but this book was actually not a murder mystery until the last 150 pages. For over 300 pages we spent time getting to know all of the quirky people that make up Indiana's cluster of friends/patients, which was really some good, light-hearted, totally amusing fun. It would give a person of the conservative persuasion a heart attack but for me it was a lot of fun. We get little bits of the murder mystery along the way but not really enough to ...more

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May 07, 2014 Clare rated it really liked it

Although many reviewers
have found fault with this book written by the brilliant Allende, i enjoyed it. I love books with teenage heroines for one thing. Allende writes beautifully and I enjoyed some of the various characters in the book. I admittedly enjoy all that "new age" stuff. The mystery part of the book didn't start until right near the end as far as I am concerned but it was engaging with a satisfying ending.

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Aug 27, 2014 Olga rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So far I am on part 7 (mp3 book) enjoying it tons, since I never expected a straight mystery. Since the title is a nod/wink to Jack the Ripper fiction, I am enjoying allusions to many other mystery books, e.g. police characters named Petra and Dunne. I think these names are winks/nods to Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, whose LAPDs have police women with these names. Any other associations?
... almost done. It took me only 2 days, but then I am on vacation, so had a lot of time. I have enjoyed this So far I am on part 7 (mp3 book) enjoying it tons, since I never expected a straight mystery. Since the title is a nod/wink to Jack the Ripper fiction, I am enjoying allusions to many other mystery books, e.g. police characters named Petra and Dunne. I think these names are winks/nods to Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, whose LAPDs have police women with these names. Any other associations?
... almost done. It took me only 2 days, but then I am on vacation, so had a lot of time. I have enjoyed this very much. But... I sort of get it why there are so many negative reviews. IMHO, it is a matter of expectations. There are at least 2 novels here: an Allende-esque large canvas epic with tons of eccentric characters and little plot. And a straight mystery-thriller, fem-jep, lots of twists and turns. The second one takes up the last third of the book. And that is where I got a bit bored. Obviously, if you are looking for a thriller, you'd be bored and disappointed in the beginning, when the "story" does not really start for a long time. Or if, like me, you are interested in the unusual characters, who populate Allende's San Francisco: New Age healers, Afgan veteran-amputee, rich playboy, a whole collection of teenage nerds and even nuns-feminists who run a girls' school, then you, like me, might loose interest in the thriller part. I loved getting to know most of the characters.(Well, not all, had a bit of a problem with a Jewish judge, descendant of Holocause survivors, who is described as a miser, does not like to pay for house cleaning - too stereotypical, a bit anti-Semitic to my taste, and I am Jewish.) Once the thriller part began in earnest I had trouble paying attention, since it was clear that sooner or later the main character will get in mortal danger (female in jeopardy), and just as clear that she will not die at the end...). I also skippped some of the war flashbacks - had been done before, up to the ghosts of Afgan villagers coming back to haunt the "damaged" veteran Navy SEAL
So the book has so much to recommend it, albeit a bit overloaded. I think it is a great foray into a new genre for a lioness of literature, like Ms. Isabel Allende. Respect!
...more

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About Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende

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Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean-American novelist. Allende, who writes in the "magic realism" tradition, is considered one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America. She has written novels based in part on her own experiences, often focusing on the experiences of women, weaving myth and realism together. She has lectured and done extensive book tours and has taught literature at ...more