A teenage girl and her role-playing posse (which includes her grandfather) investigate a string of seemingly unrelated murders and discover a serial killer on the loose with revenge on his mind. ( )

The commentary below is spot on - I can see that this could be good but very quickly it was bogged down in minutiae and drove me nuts from impatience.

I was so willing to like this book because I am still yet to finish an Isabel Allende book. I'm ashamed of myself - but can anyone recommend one of hers that I might complete? given my impatience with backstory, flashbacks and the like. ( )

Tal como predijo la astróloga más reputada de San Francisco, una oleada de crímenes comienza a sacudir la ciudad. En la investigación sobre los asesinatos, el inspector Bob Martín recibirá la ayuda inesperada de un grupo de internautas especializados en juegos de rol, Ripper. «"Mi madre todavía está viva, pero la matará el Viernes Santo a medianoche", le advirtió Amanda Martín al inspector jefe y éste no lo puso en duda, porque la chica había dado pruebas de saber más que él y todos sus colegas del Departamento de Homicidios. La mujer estaba cautiva en algún punto de los dieciocho mil kilómetros cuadrados de la bahía de San Francisco, tenían pocas horas para encontrarla con vida y él no sabía por dónde empezar a buscarla.»

Book's ending seems a bit contrived. Lots of build-up and then, I didn't feel, a very satisfactory ending. The book is set up for a sequel. ( )

Ripper is a good story with interesting characters, but it fails because of the author's focus on those characters. Every character is presented with a long, intricate backstory, which puts the rest of the book on hold. Even one of the character's dog gets a backstory, for goodness sake! In one, odd moment, we get the backstory of a victim, but that's the only victim we meet. Why that one and not the others?

The pacing of the book would've improved if all that had been left behind, and then I might've expected the resulting crash at the end. The murderer is this person. No, it's this person. No, actually, it's this person. No, actually all three of them are the same person. Then, does this character die? Does that character die? Allende tacks on a short chapter that suddenly explains everything but leaves me unsatisfied and wondering why I slogged through the book in the first place.