Ripper: An Event Group Thriller

Bestseller Golemon’s seventh Event Group thriller (after 2011’s Legacy) is strong on ideas but weak on execution. In 1888, as Jack the Ripper butchers his last victim, Robert Louis Stevenson approaches Scotland Yard with information regarding the killer’s identity related to the real-life inspiration for his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, American chemist Lawrence Ambrose. The scene shifts to present-day Mexico, where armed men in the service of the vicious drug lord known as the Anaconda attack geologist Sarah McIntire, a member of the shadowy U.S. government agency known as the Event Group, and her team while they’re exploring caves used as weapons caches by Pancho Villa. McIntire’s capture prompts the dispatch of an Event Group rescue team, guided by secret information from Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s 1916 raid into Mexico that ultimately connects to the Ripper murders. Golemon throws a lot into the pot, but the action sequences and stoic heroes are strictly run-of-the-mill. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Book Services. (July)