Book Review: The Cutthroat - An Issac Bell Adventure by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott

Well hello to you my reader chums! Two things I love are history and a crime mystery, and so when they're combined in a novel, it's basically next-level fiction. This book combines both the elements and after I received it from my boyfriend, I couldn't wait to start reading. The title and the plotline really intrigued me and I suddenly found myself transported back in time to the Jack the Ripper era of history.

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Plotline

Set in New York in 1911, a woman goes missing. A father gets in touch with Issac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency about his missing runaway daughter and he promises he'll find her. However, a few days later, her body is found. Bell then vows to find the killer and follows a long list of leads and pathways he comes across along the way. These leads are a series of corpses which date back twenty years across the Atlantic to London where history's most brutal serial killer once operated. Bell is convinced the serial killer Jack the Ripper fled to New York and must use every trick in the book to find and stop him from doing more harm.

Characters and Relationships

The characters are undoubtedly the best part of a novel as you get to see the story unfold through their eyes. This book had quite a few main characters, more than most novels, however, it added to the complexity and the developing layers in the story. The story started at one point with the missing girl and got more and more detailed with added complexities. The main character was Issac Bell and seeing his mission to find out the killer. I really loved him as the main character as he was clever, interesting and brought all the clues together.

Along Bell's journey, he meets a lot of suspects and learns about them and their journeys to finally pinpoint the killer and who was the one behind all the murders of a number of girls. Bell builds really strong relationships with a lot of suspects and other characters and becomes a very trustworthy and friendly person to be around. My favourite relationship in the novel is him and his wife which is more towards the end as it shows the power of true love and adds that small romance element to the plot.

Thoughts on the book

This book was insanely good. It was one of those reads which were packed with a lot of details and complexities that I couldn't help keep turning the pages to read the next bit. Every few chapters, there would be another mystery unfolded and more clues and it would get so intense. Even though there was so much going on, I didn't get bored or confused, I was more intrigued about this whole mystery in the novel. I loved the author's attention to detail when it came to describing the scenery, the characters' relationships, and building up the suspense for the ultimate reveal at the end.

Ending

The ending of this book was electric. And after the build-up and layers of the clues and mystery, it's as good as the rest of the novel. With an ending for a mystery novel, sometimes they can be anti-climatic or disappointed, but this was nowhere near that. I won't give it away but before you get the real ending, you think there's already been an ending - and so the suspense carries on building. It's incredibly interesting and left me on the edge of my seat!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the level of suspense, the details involved, and the whole plotline. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves crime thrillers.

I hope you enjoyed this book review! Are you into crime thrillers?

Thank you for reading <3

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