Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a traveling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.
But then privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea.
It’s up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even ore passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer’s horrifying finale?
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This is one of the most frustrating books I’ve ever read. I fell in love with this series at the start of this year. The dark Victorian vibes, the mystery, the true-crime atmosphere, and the slightly dark but beautiful relationship, it was everything I didn’t know I needed. This book had none of that. We were stuck on a cruise ship with a circus which couldn’t be further from dark Romanian castles and terrifying London streets of the original storyline. And, I’m sorry, but a circus doesn’t exactly scream mystery and intrigue to me. I’ve never found that sort of thing “scary”. Intriguing? Sure, in the right context. This wasn’t it. But the most disappointing part of this book wasn’t even that the entire feel of the original story was lost, no, it was that the author decided to totally destroy any character development and respect built for our “heroic” leading lady. I admired Audrey' Rose’s character so much in past books, she was headstrong and decisive and extremely smart yet also so kind and empathetic. That all disappeared in this book to the point that I’m not sure I can read the next book as I can no longer stand being in her selfish hypocritical little head. It’s always a travesty when a characters personality and likeable qualities are completely destroyed but when it’s the MAIN CHARACTER, it just makes zero sense.
I had a lot of problems with this book but let’s start with the setting. I think the author was trying to pull something classic/romantic like the Titanic (before it’s sinking of course) but really failed. Sometimes I forgot that this wasn’t a modern day cruise ship with how little it seemed to refer to historical accuracies. Sorry but I’m not reading a series called Stalking Jack the Ripper to feel like I’m on a Disney cruise ship. She also tried to tie in some Greatest Showman “magic” but it missed the mark. Mainly because every “show” was stopped nearly at the start due to a tragic death. It was also extremely unrealistic that the ship would allow these shows to continue when they themselves are where the murders are taking place. There was also a large failure in creating that intrigue, most of which relied on the “mysterious” ringmaster….who I hated most of all. Which leads me to characterization.
Maniscalco totally railroaded her characters in this novel. The uncle was a prop, Thomas was a doormat, Audrey Rose was a dirtbag, and the new character that I think we were supposed to grow to love (newsflash, didn’t work) was a manipulative gaslighting narcissist. What about any of that were we supposed to enjoy? Not only that, but there was a love triangle introduced. A LOVE TRIANGLE! AFTER THE COUPLE IS ALREADY ENGAGED! That doesn’t make it intriguing, that makes it straight up cheating. Which invalidates the original romance because if a character truly loved their fiance more than any other, they wouldn’t fall for someone else, who’s face they’d never even seen, after only five days of constant manipulation by them. It made zero sense and it made me so angry. If you want a love triangle in your series, introduce it in book one, not book three when the relationship is already fully established. The only character that I came out of this novel actually having any respect for was Eliza, because she was the voice of reason constantly pointing out how stupid Audrey Rose was being. Audrey Rose was also such a hypocrite in this book. A lot of her reasoning for her stupid decisions was that she “had no choice” but the consequences didn’t really measure up to the seriousness of her actions so that doesn’t track. She also tried to control Eliza’s life by withholding information and deciding what was best for her even though whenever ANYONE tried doing that to Audrey Rose, there was hell to pay.
I’m honestly heartbroken at how destroyed my attachment is to these characters after this book. I think the only way forward is to take a break and when I finally go back to the final book (if I ever do), pretend this travesty never existed. Highly recommend skipping this book if you want to keep any love for the series. 2 stars.