Line #55 Literature/Ripper2014


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4	''El juego de Ripper'' (published in English simply as ''Ripper'') is a 2014 novel by Creator/IsabelAllende.
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6	Amanda Martin is fascinated by crime. She is currently obsessed with a game called "Ripper" which she plays online with players from around the world. With the assistance of her beloved grandfather, she guides the group (Sherlock, Esmeralda, Colonel Paddington, and Abatha) in their objective of solve crimes inspired by those of Jack the Ripper. When a series of grisly murders starts taking place in the San Francisco area where she leaves, she is fascinated by then and finds herself steering the group toward solving these real life murders.
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8	But the game stops being fun when her mother, free-spirited Indiana Jackson, goes missing.
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10	Not to be confused with Creator/MichaelSlade's 1994 novel, ''Ripper''.
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12	!!Tropes present in this work
13	* AssholeVictims: The victims of the serial killer:
14	** A security worker who used to work at a youth detention center and had a file full of complaints about his brutality towards the youths.
15	** A couple who served as foster parents to troubled youth and were abusive.
16	** A famed child psychologist who was a DomesticAbuser and was fond of prescribing shock treatment.
17	** A HangingJudge from Juvenile Court, known as The Butcher, and who is constantly late in paying for her cleaning service.
18	** [[spoiler:And the first victims: his biological parents, who were abusive to him ''as an infant'' and killed his sister.]]
19	* AbhorrentAdmirer:
20	** Gary Brunswick, one of Indiana's patients at the holistic clinic is very interested in her, but she finds him boring as hell. She finally has to dismiss him as a patient.
21	** Celeste Roko, famous astrologer and Amanda's godmother, has the hots for Blake Jackson, Amanda's grandfather. He arranges for the housekeeper to warn him if Celeste is coming so he can disappear.
22	* AnimalMotif: Wolves. They serve as the killer's CallingCard.
23	* BettyAndVeronica: Indiana is the Archie. Wealthy, sophisticated Alan Keller, an IdleRich man with a fear of commitment is the Veronica. The athletic veteran Ryan Miller is the Betty; despite his own traumas, he is her friend, comes to Amanda's rescue when she calls him for help, and is there for her.
24	* BittersweetEnding: The serial killer is found and [[spoiler: killed, but he managed to murder Alan Keller just after Indiana had taken him back. Indiana miscarries during her captivity and is left traumatized. Ryan is killed trying to rescue her, but he succeeds. A heartbroken Indiana travels to Afghanistan, to seek out the orphaned children from Ryan's mission. Amanda is all set to start her first semester at MIT but that means leaving the nest.]]
25	* BondageIsBad: Ryan goes out with Jennifer, a big fan of BDSM, even though he is put off by it. When he breaks up, she makes a big scene in public. She blames Indiana and later threatens her.
26	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Amanda can sometimes come across like that, being openly contemptuous about her dad's most recent love interest, and passing judgment on her mother's life choices.
27	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Indiana is constantly losing her phone, her keys, and appears oblivious to things going around. But when it comes to her work as a holistic healer and her side gig as a seller of aromatherapy products, she takes those very seriously.
28	* CallingCard: It's all about wolves. The widow of one of the victims receives a copy of Creator/HermannHesse's novel ''Literature/{{Steppenwolf}}''. Another victim, who collected glass figurines, receives one after her death that is at first mistaken for a dog but it's really a wolf.
29	* CampGay: Indiana's friend Danny, a server at the cafe. He invites her and her friends to see him perform at a gay bar as Whitney Houston.
30	* CommitmentIssues: Alan has been dating Indiana for several years now and is happy keeping things casual. It is not until she breaks up with him and [[RichesToRags he loses his wealth]] that he finally proposes to her.
31	* ContrivedCoincidence: How the police department learns about the newest victim of a serial killer: the owners of her housecleaning service went to her home and found her. They are undocumented and afraid of going to the police. Fortunately, their mother is a housekeeper to a pharmacist who still has an amicable relationship with his former son-in-law... who is in charge of the Homicide Unit of the Police Department.
32	* CoolOldLady: Denise West, a woman in her sixties who is friends with Ryan and Pedro. When Ryan is on the run, she offers her home as a place to stay.
33	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Ryan is haunted by one of his missions: he entered a village home in Afghanistan, kills a woman who comes at him with a knife, and finds her two children, a little girl and an infant, hiding in a hole in the ground.
34	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The first murder reported is found at a school gym by a class of fourth-graders about to start P.E.; all other victims are killed and later found at home.
35	* DesecratingTheDead: Ed Staton is found dead from a gunshot in the middle of his forehead at a school gym, sprawled on a vaulting horse, pants around his ankles, and a baseball bat [[AssShove inserted for maximum humiliating effect]].
36	* DinnerAndABreakup: Ryan decides to end his relationship with Jennifer Yang, as they are sexually incompatible (she is into S&M and he is a rather vanilla guy) in a classic tea house. He ends up regretting it when she causes a scene. As he tries to drag her out, an onlooker calls him a {{sadist}}. Jennifer yells back that she wishes he was.
37	%%* EasilyForgiven:
38	* HandicappedBadass: Despite losing his leg during a mission, Ryan still practices at the gun range, continues with Attila's training and trains daily for triathlons. Attila, who survived a mine explosion that left him missing an ear, also qualifies. [[spoiler: When the identity of Indiana's abductor is found, Ryan and Atilla break into the location where she is being kept. Not even being mortally wounded stops him from saving her.]]
39	* IfICantHaveYou: Indiana is kidnapped on account of not returning the affections of [[spoiler:Gary, one of the serial killer's personas.]]
40	* IWantMyBelovedToBeFashionable: Alan often buys elegant clothes for Indiana, who usually buys her clothes on thrift shops. She only wears them to please him, like a little black dress, a color she normally avoids for its negative energy.
41	* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: The Ripper players are only known by the name of their personas: Sherlock Holmes, the streetwise Romani Esmeralda, the psychic Abatha, and old-fashioned Colonel Paddington.
42	* MarkOfShame:
43	** The abusive foster parents are found with letters burned on their buttocks: A on one, F on the other.
44	** The psychologist is found with the shape of a swastika cut on his chest.
45	* NailedToTheWagon: How Ryan Miller got sober: he is too proud to accept help he would have been entitled to get from the Veterans Administration. A like-minded neighbor has him strip naked and leaves him by himself in his apartment without any of his clothes, his phone or his computer for three days. He is absolutely miserable and even contemplates breaking out the window. But when she comes to get him, he is clean and manages to stay clean for years.
46	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
47	** Ryan's dog used to be his partner while he was stationed in Afghanistan. The dog was trained to kill upon command, assisted by his titanium fangs; [[ChekhovsSkill Ryan keeps up his training]]. His name? Attila, as in UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.
48	** The HangingJudge Rachel Rosen has been given the name "The Butcher" for imposing overly harsh sentences, not out of a sense of justice but for the bonuses paid to her by for-profit detention centers.
49	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ayani, the widow of one of the murder victims, is a former top model and activist against FGM (female genital mutilation). Her character bears a strong resemblance to that of former top model and UN Ambassador (1997-2003) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waris_Dirie Waris Dirie]], whose autobiography ''Desert Flower'' was adapted into a [[Film/DesertFlower film]].
50	* PickyEater: Amanda eats a vegetarian diet (she is repulsed by meat) but hates vegetables and has a SweetTooth. At dinner with her family and friends, she orders three desserts and a Coke.
51	* PoeticSerialKiller: The killer had been abused as an infant and [[DepartmentOfChildDisservices mistreated through the foster care system]]. He is later victimized via the juvenile court system. All the people he murders later on (with one exception) were all directly involved in his TraumaCongaLine.
52	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Amanda's group of ''Ripper'' players. Sherlock Holmes is an African-American boy genius age 12, Abatha is a teenaged girl from Montreal who has been hospitalized several times for her eating disorder, Esmeralda is a paraplegic teenage boy from Auckland, New Zealand, and Col. Paddington is an [[TheShutIn agoraphobic teenager]] from New Jersey who has not left his home in ages.
53	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Carol Drinkwater, the cancer patient, is not real; "she" is a persona created by the killer, Gary Brunswick/Lee Galespi/Anton Farkas in order to get closer to Indiana. The cancer was made up in order to compel's Indiana's compassion]]
54	* RummageSaleReject: Amanda. Her ensembles consist of pieces bought at thrift shops. They are not guided by trends or even common sense. When she goes out to breakfast with her dad and he points out that she is in flip-flops when it's rainy out, she just puts on a Peruvian wool hat and a scarf.
55	* ShotgunWedding: Bob and Indiana married as a result of her becoming pregnant as a teenager. Since he was a DumbJock with a HairTriggerTemper, their marriage didn't last too long. Oddly enough, their relationship is very friendly and kind by the time the novel takes place.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** Ryan mentions [[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey a book about shades of grey or beige]] ... or something like that.
58	** Amanda is fascinated with Scandinavian crime novels, has read the ''[[Literature/MillenniumSeries Millenium]]'' trilogy[[note]]the novel takes place after Stieg Larsson's death and before his publisher hired another writer to continue with the series.[[/note]] and ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' book series.
59	* TraumaCongaLine: The killer's early life. In infancy, he was abused by his biological parents. A nurse kidnaps him [[spoiler:and raises him [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender ''as her daughter'']], teaching "Lee" that "girls are good, boys are bad". One day the nurse dies but her ID is stolen. By the time authorities identify her and find her child, "Lee Galespi" has been left alone for weeks and is close to death by starvation. And that is before Child Protective Service intervenes.]]
60	* ThemeSerialKiller: The killer chooses to "execute" his victims with variations on the death penalty: one is shot execution style, the foster parents are killed via an overdose (lethal injection), the psychiatrist is electrocuted in a chair, and the judge is garroted to death. [[spoiler:His first victims die from carbon monoxide poisoning in an improvised gas chamber.]]

Context Literature / Ripper2014