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Andy Dubson is a loafing, lying and thoroughly loveable clairvoyant thirteen-year-old from London's East End. As Andy and his good friend, Lucy Catlett, solve one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries, they are sure to make their way into the hearts of countless teens and adult readers across the globe. My Grandfather Jack the Ripper is the kind of young adult fiction that is intelligent, provocative, frighteningly violent, totally real, and, by turns, delightfully funny.
Andy's mother Emma is the innkeeper of Jack-in-the-Box, the lowly East End boarding house that has been in the Dubson family for generations -- all the way back to the time of Jack the Ripper, who murdered his last victim in Room Number 4, just upstairs from Andy's bedroom. The dusty, dilapidated and totally creepy boarding house is now occupied by an assortment of misfits and crazies, including Andy's Granddad, Bob, a flaming alcoholic who is an unending source of stories about Andy's family and the lore of the Jack-in-the-Box.
Andy and Lucy befriend a newly-arrived boarder, Massimo, an Italian graduate student who has come to London in hope of finding new clues to Jack the Ripper's unsolved crimes. As this astonishing and blood-curdling adventure unfolds, Massimo helps Andy enhance his clairvoyant gift to travel back in time to solve the grisly murder of Mary Kelly, the final victim of Jack the Ripper... But upon his return to the present, Andy is faced with another, more personally devastating crime. We are kept on the edge of our seats as the story takes some surprising and frightening turns before the end.
My Grandfather Jack the Ripper has created a stir in Italy. Young readers will be fascinated with its historical subject, and intrigued by its open treatment of a variety of adult themes that are sure to stimulate much discussion between parent and child, between friends, and among readers everywhere. |
