Bright Young Women / Jessica Knoll

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

”Things grow differently when they're damaged, showing us how to occupy strange new ground to bloom red instead of green. We can be found, brighter than before.”

I have to admire Jessica Knoll for writing this whole novel calling the murderer only The Defendant. She does for this offender what Hallie Rubenhold did with her nonfiction book The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, taking the focus away from the infamous murderer and centering the book where it belongs, on the victims. I confess to reading quite a few books about The Defendant years ago, trying to make sense of those events of my young-woman-hood, back when readers were fascinated by the criminal rather than how to prevent the crime and help the victimized. It brought Jacinta Arden, former leader of New Zealand, to mind, refusing to use the name of the Christchurch shooter and denying him the glory he was seeking.

I have no doubt that Knoll portrays the Florida sorority girls realistically, if fictitiously. What made me volcanically angry was their treatment by law enforcement and reporters, as if they were children. They were systematically kept in the dark, only to be blindsided repeatedly. Those were the days of fighting for equality with men, trying to be taken seriously, while at the same time being expected to be perfect “ladies,” well groomed and ultra polite. Rather schizophrenic really. And it's not entirely behind us.

Knoll also kicks around the idea that the murderer was charming, handsome, or very intelligent and rejects it. According to her interview in Vanity Fair, she rapidly came to the conclusion that those characteristics were highly exaggerated by the press and law enforcement (probably to justify their failure to stop him). His successful murders were due to preying on the relentless socialization of young women to be helpful, caring, and open to men, using casts and crutches to appear weakened and in need of assistance. Honestly, looking at photos of the perpetrator, I have always been mystified how it came to be believed that he was handsome. He looked pretty ferret-like to me.

The pointiest stick in her novel is the contrast between the many, many books about The Defendant and the pathetically small coverage of those whose lives he impacted or took away. I am as guilty as anyone of reading those serial killer books, but I am learning that they support the patriarchal tendency to support even serial killers rather than the women they leave in their wake. As I often do, I recommend that every woman (and everyone who cares about the women in their lives) read Gavin de Becker's excellent book The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence (the first half, as the second half is seriously out of date).

I read this for the Free square on my Bingo Card.

Killman Creek / Rachel Caine

5 out of 5 stars

Gwen Proctor won the battle to save her kids from her ex-husband, serial killer Melvin Royal, and his league of psychotic accomplices. But the war isn’t over. Not since Melvin broke out of prison. Not since she received a chilling text…

You’re not safe anywhere now.

Her refuge at Stillhouse Lake has become a trap. Gwen leaves her children in the protective custody of a fortified, well-armed neighbor. Now, with the help of Sam Cade, brother of one of Melvin’s victims, Gwen is going hunting. She’s learned how from one of the sickest killers alive.

But what she’s up against is beyond anything she feared—a sophisticated and savage mind game calculated to destroy her. As trust beyond her small circle of friends begins to vanish, Gwen has only fury and vengeance to believe in as she closes in on her prey. And sure as the night, one of them will die.

An excellent follow-up to the first volume, Stillhouse Lake. At the end of that first book, Gwen’s creepy, scary ex-husband & notorious serial killer, Melvin Royal has escaped from death row in Witchita and he could be anywhere. He underlines that uncertainty by texting her : You’re not safe anywhere now

Caine manages to maintain the tension in this second volume, ratcheting up the pressure on Gwen, who decides that she can no longer passively flee from her husband and the army of internet trolls and criminals who are making her life a living hell and threatening her children. With the support of a few friends and allies, she will turn the tables and hunt her ex-husband.

Gwen gets put through the wringer--Caine thinks up torments for her that are believable, but harrowing. I couldn’t put the book down, I had to know what happened. Some elements are predictable, but the author manages to give them her own twist that makes them feel right for this situation.

At the end of each book, Caine allows you to relax your vigilance just a little, giving a feeling of completion. However, unresolved elements of the story encourage the reader on to the next volume. I, for example, have now requested the third book from my library and I’ll be hard pressed not to read it immediately when it comes in!

Stillhouse Lake / Rachel Caine

4.75 stars out of 5

Gina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.

I read this book to fill the Free square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

What a nail-biter of a book! It’s a fabulous psychological thriller that grabbed me by the throat from the very first pages and didn’t let me go until the very end. Rachel Caine has certainly got my number, and I am really enjoying her most recent work (The Great Library series and The Honors) and now the Stillhouse Lake series. I’ve been looking for an excuse to read this book for some time and I’m so glad I chose it as a Bingo selection.

Having just recently read A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming, I already had an interest in what happens to the family of a serial killer. I think that Caine wrote this very realistically. Women in relationships with controlling men spend a lot of time trying not to draw the wrath of their spouses down on themselves. They try to be perfect wives, to maintain perfect households, to do whatever their spouse requests of them. My sister spent time with a controller and I worried for her safety every damn day. That, in and of itself, is terrifying. But when a killer’s crimes are discovered, the public rarely believes that the wife knew nothing. Like Gwen in this book, these women come to believe the same thing--that they should somehow have ignored their husbands’ conditioning and seen what was weird. Readers who harbour these beliefs should read the above mentioned memoir--that author tackles the issue from the unsuspecting family’s perspective. They are abused too and are just trying to survive.

The other highly realistic part of the book was the internet hate and the doxing. As Gwen/Gina finds out, it’s difficult to keep running and hiding. There’s no protection program for families of these criminals. With the need to keep ahead of trouble, she and her two children have been uprooting themselves regularly and changing everything. The kids kind of understand, but not totally, as Gwen has been hiding the worst of the internet hatred and the twisted letters from their father. As a result, both of them are acting out and Gwen completely gets it, but she doesn’t want to be publicly identified, injured or killed.

Is it possible to just quit running? Can they finally start over, make friends and build relationships? Or will the creepy ex-husband manage to ruin their lives yet again? Will the police help them or do they still believe that Gwen was involved in her husband’s crimes somehow? It’s a powerful mix of emotional subject matter and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next volume.

Obsidian Butterfly / Laurell K. Hamilton

4 out of 5 stars

In her ninth adventure, vampire hunter Anita Blake owes a favor to a friend-a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she's about to face.

Edward, the empty-eyed sociopath who haunts the outskirts of Anita Blake’s life, is arguably the most interesting character in the Anita Blake series. A man of mystery, obviously dangerous, Anita values his occasional assistance and has a wary respect for him. When Edward calls in a favour that Anita owes him, she knows she has no choice but to go give him a hand.

The actual mystery portion of the book is predictable and rather uninteresting. The reason that I enjoyed this book so much was getting to know Edward and observing the dynamics of the “team” that he has assembled to solve the mystery. Four usually-lone-wolf killers must find a way to co-exist in Edward/Ted’s Santa Fe adobe home for the duration of the operation and it becomes obvious as the book progresses that Anita could be in danger from her fellow team members as well as the usual supernatural crowd.

I find myself debating whether Hamilton did Edward any favours with this installment. Does the knowledge that he has acquired a girlfriend and step-children and that he seems to care for them (at least in his own limited way) weaken him in his role as stone-cold killer and psychopath? Or does it add an unusual dimension to an otherwise stereotypical sociopathic role? One way or the other, Hamilton gives us the even creepier Olaf as contrast and the implied promise at the book’s end that he’ll be back at some point in the future.

Anita must also deal with her own ethical slippage in this adventure, wondering just how much like Edward she has become and if the progression will continue. Can hard cases like Edward be redeemed by love? Is there hope for Anita too?

Perhaps the most enjoyable Anita Blake book (especially since I’m part way into the next one and I’m wondering if I’ll even finish it).

Into the Black Nowhere / Meg Gardiner

3 out of 5 stars

In southern Texas, on Saturday nights, women are disappearing. One vanishes from a movie theater. Another is ripped from her car at a stoplight. Another vanishes from her home while checking on her baby. Rookie FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix, newly assigned to the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, fears that a serial killer is roaming the dark roads outside Austin.

Caitlin and the FBI's serial crime unit discover the first victim's body in the woods. She's laid out in a bloodstained, white baby-doll nightgown. A second victim in a white nightie lies deeper in the forest's darkness. Both bodies are surrounded by Polaroid photos, stuck in the earth like headstones. Each photo pictures a woman in a white negligee, wrists slashed, suicide-style--posed like Snow White awaiting her prince's kiss.

I read this book to fill the New Releases square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.

I read the first book in this series (UNSUB) last summer—it was an excellent summer book and I have been looking forward to this next step in the story. However, I’ve found myself a bit jaded with the mystery/thriller genre recently, so bear that in mind with my star rating of this book. For me, the stars reflect my personal reading experience, not an objective quality measurement and, as I say, I’m a bit off when it comes to this genre right now.

I was unsurprised to read on the dust jacket that this series is being made into a TV series. All the while I was reading, I was staging it in my mind’s eye to look like Criminal Minds! It reads like it is prepared to become a script. Looking at the GR description now, I see that this plot was based on Ted Bundy’s life of crime and I certainly notice the parallels now that I know to look for them. Using real-life details makes for a haunting plot.

So I was not at all startled when the book ended on a cliffhanger, obviously setting us up for the third book, due next year. I think I’ll be taking a hiatus from the thriller/serial killer category for a while, but I could see myself reading The Dark Corners of the Night eventually.

Good Me, Bad Me / Ali Land

3.5 stars out of 5

Milly's mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.

But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother's trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.

When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother's daughter.

 Not recommended for those who have children and/or are sensitive to violence against children.

Milly knows she is different from other children. From other people. But she maybe doesn’t realize just how different. You see, Molly’s mother is a serial killer and she has forced Milly to be Satan’s little helper. It’s much easier to snatch a child if you have one of your own in tow.

What conscience Milly has left has sent her to the police. Yes, she felt bad for the children lying dead in their basement, but what she was truly dreading was the “birthday party” that her mother was planning when she turned “sweet sixteen.” So before the invitations go out to people to come & brutalize her, Milly turns her mother in.

But she had no idea how hard it was going to be to leave her mother behind. Or how difficult it will be to act like she is “normal,” especially when she has been taught by an expert how to read body language, how to manipulate people, how to tell them what they want to hear. She can’t seem to fit in to her foster situation, because she can see altogether too clearly what is going on in their home—and how can she trust a social worker who can’t see that his wife is an addict and his daughter is well on her way to the same state.

If you like this book, I would recommend I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. It is a young adult work, but really well done in my opinion. Another child struggling to right himself after being raised by a serial killer dad.

The Killer Inside Me / Jim Thompson

3 out of 5 stars

Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou's known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and all of his coworkers--the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between--as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he's the kind of officer you're happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday.

But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen. An urge that has already claimed multiple lives, and cost Lou his brother Mike, a self-sacrificing construction worker who fell to his death on the job in what was anything but an accident. A murder that Lou is determined to avenge--and if innocent people have to die in the process, well, that's perfectly all right with him.

Read to fill the “Serial/Spree Killer” square for 2107 Halloween Bingo.

This novel is considered a classic in the crime/noir genre and I think it certainly deserves its place there.  First published in 1952, it may be one of the earlier books that gives the reader a glimpse into the head of a serial killer.  Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff in small town Texas, thinks he can murder his way out of any problem.  He spends his time getting the towns folk to believe that he is just a good old boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly and probably isn’t all that bright—and committing sophisticated crimes which, as a member of law enforcement, he knows how to cover up.  In many ways, he is the predecessor of Dexter Morgan, the cheerful serial killer who works in Miami as a forensic blood spatter technician.  Maybe also to “true crime” books like In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

The writing is impressive.  If you’re female, you’re going to flinch at Lou’s casual attitude to mistreating and killing women, but it’s all part of his persona.  Not to mention that it is true to life—art imitating reality.  Crime and criminals have been with us forever, but this book helped in the process that brought the awareness of them into current popular culture.

I Hunt Killers / Barry Lyga

4 out of 5 stars

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?  Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.  But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.  In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

After a summer of reading and enjoying children’s literature, I suddenly find that I am being pulled towards the dark side. My library holds are coming in and there is a definite theme developing! First it was In Cold Blood, now there’s this young adult novel I Hunt Killers.

Teenager Jasper Dent (known to his friends as Jazz) was raised by notorious serial killer Billy Dent, who did his best to make his son into Satan’s little helper. Billy is in jail at this point and Jazz is living with his bat-shit-crazy grandmother, trying to keep Social Services at bay, and trying to figure out how much of his father’s criminality he is responsible for. When a corpse appears in Jazz’s small town, he is convinced that there is another serial killer on the loose, but the cops aren’t willing to listen to a teenager, even if he is a serial killer’s son.

Although there is a reasonably good little mystery written into this work, the main thrust of it is a matter of responsibility. How much are parents responsible for how their children turn out? Are children responsible for their parents’ actions? Nature vs. nurture. How do you know what your true nature is when you’ve been trained in a certain way?

I was reminded of Dan Wells’ John Cleaver series (which begins with I Am Not a Serial Killer), but I prefer Lyga’s version because it doesn’t go paranormal on me. I truly believe that the whole serial killer idea is scary enough with adding supernatural elements to the story. I think that fans of the Dexter and Criminal Minds tv shows would also appreciate this book.