Publication: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Dutton
Source: Publisher
Synopsis:
A deadly past refuses to stay buried in Olivia Kiernan’s masterful new novel.
Death is no stranger to Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan, but she isn’t the only one from her small, coastal suburb to be intimately acquainted with it. Years ago, teenager Sean Hennessey shocked the tight-knit community when he was convicted of the brutal murder of his parents and attempted slaying of his sister, though he always maintained his innocence. Now, Sean is finally being released from prison—but when his newfound freedom coincides with the discovery of two bodies, the alleged connection between the cases only serves to pull Frankie further from answers even as it draws her closer to her town’s hidden darkness. With a television documentary revisiting Sean’s sentence pushing the public’s sympathies into conflict on a weekly basis, a rabid media pressuring the police like never before, and a rising body count, Frankie will need all of her resources if she is not only to catch a killer, but put to rest what really happened all those years ago.
A dark, irresistible cocktail of secrets, murder, and family, Olivia Kiernan’s latest is an impossible-to-put-down triumph.
Death is no stranger to Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan, but she isn’t the only one from her small, coastal suburb to be intimately acquainted with it. Years ago, teenager Sean Hennessey shocked the tight-knit community when he was convicted of the brutal murder of his parents and attempted slaying of his sister, though he always maintained his innocence. Now, Sean is finally being released from prison—but when his newfound freedom coincides with the discovery of two bodies, the alleged connection between the cases only serves to pull Frankie further from answers even as it draws her closer to her town’s hidden darkness. With a television documentary revisiting Sean’s sentence pushing the public’s sympathies into conflict on a weekly basis, a rabid media pressuring the police like never before, and a rising body count, Frankie will need all of her resources if she is not only to catch a killer, but put to rest what really happened all those years ago.
A dark, irresistible cocktail of secrets, murder, and family, Olivia Kiernan’s latest is an impossible-to-put-down triumph.
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It was good to get back into Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan’s world and unravel the clues to whatever case came her way. I love police procedurals and The Killer in Me proved to be a good one.
The story is told by Frankie’s POV, so there was no bouncing back and forth between characters which was a nice change for me. I liked the concept of the story, though there were some parts of it that were a bit slow moving. There were several red herrings and I enjoyed trying to decipher whether Sean was innocent or guilty. The author did a great job of creating an unreliable character with him. It was easy to feel sorry for him and the life he missed out on. Even though Frankie is looking into this past case, she also has to deal with a more pressing current one. The murder of two people in a church. It was interesting to see Frankie and her team work behind the scenes to uncover clues as to what happened and rule out suspects.
Both of these cases created an intriguing look at the past and the present. I was eager to discover how they would intersect if at all. For whatever reason, it took me a couple of tries to read this book, but once I started it again and got a few chapters in, it was easy to get into the story. The mystery was well done, and the ending was one I definitely did not guess.
RATING: 3½ OUT OF 5.
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