I purchased this book for my own personal collection.
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Published: April 5, 2022
Summary:
Sam Holland’s chilling debut draws inspiration from infamous serial killer cases, culminating in the ultimate, heart-pounding copycat tale.
Detectives Cara Elliott and Noah Deakin are on the case of a series of seemingly unconnected murders, each different in method, but each shocking and brutal. As the body count increases, they can’t ignore the details that echo famous cases of the past—Manson, Kemper, Dahmer, and more. As Elliott and Deakin get closer to unmasking the killer, the murders are moving closer to home.
Meanwhile, Jessica Ambrose is on the run. She’s been implicated as the arsonist who killed her neglectful husband and injured her young daughter. With the help of disgraced and suspended detective Nate Griffin, Jess discovers a shocking link between her case and that of the ultimate copycat killer working on his horrifying masterpiece.
My thoughts:
I’m no stranger to dark, gory reads but WOW is this one a doozy! And I absolutely loved it! It’s one of those books that as soon as I saw everyone raving about it on bookstagram, I immediately went out and bought it…and then decided I would wait to read it until October…it just seemed like the perfect time to read it and boy was I right! But word of caution…this book is definitely not for the faint of heart. Think Karin Slaughter, Lars Kepler or even The Chestnut Man – that’s how dark and gruesome this book is.
This one grabbed me from the get-go and never let up. I ended up reading it in just a couple days because I just couldn’t put it down. It is fast-paced with short-chapters that just beg you to keep reading. There are three timelines presented here, but I found it quite easy to follow along. I also loved that even though this is a serial killer/copycat case, there is a bit of a romance woven in…it helped to break up the darkness of the book.
This book kept me on my toes the entire time. I love a book that can keep me guessing all the way through. And I loved that while the pace was for the most part pretty fast, there were times that it slowed down just enough for us to catch our breath before it would speed up again. The tension never let up and the idea that a killer was out there copying the MOs of serial killers from the past – pure genius! And I loved that the author gave us the reader just enough backstory on all the serial killers that we didn’t have to stop reading to research them if we weren’t familiar with them.
I’m not going to get too much more into the plot of the book because I think you really need to go into this one blind to fully enjoy it. I will say that this book has plenty of twists, including a pretty big one at the end. For a debut novel, Sam Holland knocked it out of the park with this one and I cannot wait to get my hands on her next book, The Twenty, which will be out in May of 2023!
