REVIEW: Bloodline by Jill Jones

Title: Bloodline
Author: Jill Jones
Publisher: St. Martin’s
Publication Date: June, 2000
Paperback: 336 pages
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 5/10

Description: Victoria Thomas is one of the FBI's finest criminal profilers, a career born of the tragic, unsolved murder of her younger sister. She's also a closet "Sherlockian," involved in a group that follows the famous English detective. This hobby leader her to London, to a symposium on Sherlock Holmes, where she finds unexpected passion...and a chilling murder mystery involving a modern-day Jack the Ripper.

He's murdering women and leaving clever, diabolical messages for Victoria to follow. He's teasing her, taunting her, daring her to find him. For he, too, is following his calling—answering the terrible demons of his bloodline, proving he is every bit as elusive as his infamous ancestor.

In the chilling Bloodline, Jill Jones weaves a spellbinding tale of icy suspense, haunting romance, and lost history, that spans from the time of Jack the Ripper in 1888, to this very day.

My Thoughts: I’ve long been fascinated by the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders in 1888 and have my own personal speculation on who Jack was. For the most part, I enjoyed this story that centers around an FBI profiler who is battling her own personal demons trying to solve the murder of her sister several years before. After an especially grueling case, Victoria is all but ordered to take a vacation. She shanghais childhood friend, Trey, and they depart for London to attend a weekend seminar featuring a speaker from Scotland Yard about the unsolved Ripper murders.

For the most part, I enjoyed the story that mixes the historical facts with the growing romance between Victoria and Jonathan Blake. Throw in a Jack the Ripper copycat killer who is murdering women and has chosen Victoria to receive his dark messages and graphic and disturbing gifts. The identity of the modern day Ripper provided a satisfactory closure as well. My problem with this book was instead of ending the story with the killer being captured and Victoria and Jonathan riding off into the sunset, the story continues and goes off the deep end into a conspiracy theory about the 1888 Jack’s identity and a bunch of cloak and dagger moments and cover-ups.

I may be in the minority here, but though several theories about Jack’s identity make logical sense, I personally feel that there being no resolution is a big part of the appeal of this case. If you can overlook the last chapter, maybe even skip it all together, you may enjoy this story overall.