If you thought you knew suspense and intrigue then you don't know Jack!
Final Destination: Destination Zero is a novel by David McIntee released in 2005, the second Black Flame Final Destination book.After an investigative journalist narrowly cheats death in a terrorist attack she sees a great angle for a story by telling the survivors' tales in her magazine. When the survivors start turning up dead though she begins to suspect foul play and finds herself dragged into a world of spiritualism and conspiracies that ultimately leads back to Victorian England and Jack the Ripper.
Destination Zero contains tropes such as:
- Asshole Victim: Stewart Tubbs and Al Kinsey. Also Bill Sangster, following his reveal as Jack the Ripper.
- Black Dude Dies First: Hal Ward.
- Death by Irony: Al Kinsey is decapitated while a prostitute is giving him head.
- Eye Scream: A character gets blinded by snake venom.
- Final Girl: Patti Fuller is the only survivor of the train incident. A bit downplayed example since Jim also survives the events of the book because he was never targeted by Death in the first place.
- Genre Roulette: The book jumps from modern horror, Gothic horror,and even a brief dip into action.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Zack gets bisected by a large glass pannel in a vertical fashion.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Though never identified by name, the detective in the Victorian Britain segments is obviously Sherlock Holmes.
- Kill It with Fire: Matthew gets burned alive from the inside out.
- Kill It with Water: The first victim probably could swim, but his leg was broken and he was being bashed around by a motorbike underwater. Eventually, he drowns.
- Meaningful Name: Susan Fries. No need to guess how she meets her end.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: It turns out the bombers were just criminals who wanted millions of dollars.
- No Dead Body Poops: Averted. Steward Tubbs loosens his bowels after he's autopsied alive.
- Not Quite Dead: Subverted. Stewart Tubbs was still alive, but no one realized it until after they cut him open, broke open his ribs, and pulled out his lung during the autopsy. Then he woke up, and subsequently died.
- Off with His Head!: Al Kinsey gets swiftly decapitated. While having sex in the speeding car, no less!
- Recycled IN SPACE!: About half of the book is set in 1888 and involves a group surviving a house fire after one of them has a vision of it before it happens.
- Resurrection Gambit:
- Patti's grandmother apparently cheated death by being able to escape a disaster. In order to buy herself more time, she drowned herself, so that she could be resurrected.
- This is how Patti herself ends up as the Final Girl. She overdoses so that she can be revived and go on living.
- Serial Killer: Jack the Ripper shows up here. He becomes the main villain during the climax of the Victorian segment.
- Snakes Are Evil: Three of the victims are killed by poisonous snakes in a rapid succession.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Zack Halloran's death is spoiled on the very FIRST PAGE before the actual story even begins.
