Ripper

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

`A literary banquet overflowing with morsels of Nancy Drew, mouthfuls of Agatha Christie, a sprinkle of Barbara Cartland and dashes of James Patterson and Tom Clancy ... [The]combination of detective story and romantic saga is likely to intrigue Allende fans ... What lingers is Allende's generosity with fictional detail, her warmth and humanity' Observer

`Idiosyncratic, unflinching, glaringly contemporary (it is about a bunch of online gamers who end up tracking a serial killer in San Francisco) and obviously much better written than it needs to be. Allende excels at exacting portraiture and barbed asides' Guardian

`As it gathers pace, the tale becomes gripping and delivers a clever final twist' Sunday Times

` Ripper is full of wry humour. Brimming over with humanity it is very far from being a straightforward thriller ... All Allende's habitual concerns are on display: the interplay of character, the importance of family and the conflicting pulls of religion, spiritualism and alternative remedies ... Allende manages to pull it off as a terrific storyteller. She holds the reader's attention from start to finish and throws in a neat twist at the end' Daily Express, Five Stars

`Thoroughly charming book ... a lot of fun to read. Also, it features a teenage sleuth... who is pretty much irresistible ...
Allende blithely dispenses with the more restrictive genre conventions to get to the fun parts ... A canvas so crowded with life that even death seems to melt into the background' New York Times

`Literary icon Isabel Allende mesmerizes with her first crime novel ... this race-against-the-clock thriller is pure magic' People Magazine

`The author handles a complicated plot and complex characters with great skill' Country Life Magazine

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of eighteen books, including `Ines of My Soul', `Daughter of Fortune', and `Portrait in Sepia'. She has also written a collection of stories, four memoirs, and a trilogy of children's novels. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages and have become bestsellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Isabel Allende lives in California.