Carver Young has lived in the same orphanage ever since he was a baby.  But now New York City is shutting the orphanage down, selling the land to property developers to build high-end apartments.  With nowhere to go, Carver decides to join the Pinkertons—the best detective agency in the country.  Using their resources maybe he’ll be able to figure whom his parents actually were and where he comes from. 

Before he has a chance to leave the orphanage, Detective Albert Hawking, the best detective working for the Pinkertons, adopts him.  Under Detective Hawking, Carver learns the rules of the trade: observation, deduction, and, sometimes, a little bit of trickery.  He settles into his new life of becoming a detective until a new serial killer comes into town.  Wealthy New Yorkers are dying in an eerily similar fashion to the Jack the Ripper victims in London eight years before. 

Carver and Delia, his best friend from the orphanage, work with the Pinkertons to catch the killer, but will they be able to before more people are killed?  And what connection might Carver have to Jack the Ripper?

Ripper, by Stefan Petrucha, is a fast-paced read through 1890s New York City.  Filled with witty characters and real-life gadgets, it is a good, spooky mystery just in time for Halloween.