Blog Tour for Ripper by Isabel Allende

Title: Ripper
Author: Isabel Allende (website)
Pages: 496
Source: TLC Book Tours for review 
Rating: 3/5

Summary from Goodreads:

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 women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Yet, while their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda's father, she's reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her-Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco's elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL.

While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature, like her father, the SFPD's Deputy Chief of Homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

When a string of strange murders occurs across the city, Amanda plunges into her own investigation, discovering, before the police do, that the deaths may be connected. But the case becomes all too personal when Indiana suddenly vanishes. Could her mother's disappearance be linked to the serial killer? Now, with her mother's life on the line, the young detective must solve the most complex mystery she's ever faced before it's too late
The summary on this one sounds like it would be something I'd totally love. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the hype I had in my head. I am a huge fan of stories with serial killers but the mystery got lost in the writing.  am guessing that this would be a literary mystery because it was written with fancier language than I usually read in mysteries. The writing was lovely but there were huge chunks of text that told things not related to what came before it. Something like...she was walking through the woods. And then 3 paragraphs about how the woods were discovered and what they were originally called and on and on. That aspect kept me from settling into the mystery aspect of it.

The online game Ripper is interesting and I enjoyed how Allende wove that into her story. Amanda comes into her own by playing the game and then by trying to solve the real life serial killing. I loved, loved, loved her relationship with her grandfather. So nice to read about a wonderful relationship like that.

Another aspect I really enjoyed was how the Ripper players were so varied and from around the world but they were still good friends. Never meeting in real life doesn't mean much in today's society. With social media, we converse more on our digital devices than in real person. The game really brought that home.

The pacing was slower than I prefer for a mystery - I like lots of action but was satisfied with it overall because of the beautiful writing.

You can find the rest of the tour here.

About Isabel Allende:

Isabel Allende is the bestselling author of twelve works of fiction, four memoirs, and three young adult novels, which have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages, with more than 57 million copies sold. In 2004, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award in 2012. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she lives in California. Find out more about Allende, her books, and her foundation at www.isabelallende.com, and connect with her on Facebook.