Last year, I read another of Rachel Abbott's novels, Stranger Child (click through to read my review), which I found both chilling and heartbreaking. It had me totally gripped and really made me think about how circumstances can make someone into both a victim and a tormentor.
When a copy of Kill Me Again landed on my doormat, I couldn't wait to get stuck in and I was once again sucked in by the tense atmosphere and gripping plot. Crime fiction abounds with copycat killers who try to mimic crime scenes but in this novel, it is the victims themselves who are recreated, with young women meeting a gory end seemingly purely based on their physical appearance, because they have an uncanny resemblance to past victims ... and possibly future ones too.
The book starts with Maggie Taylor coming home from her high powered job as a defence lawyer, expecting to find her stay-at-home-dad husband Duncan cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the kids. She goes through the whole range of emotions from shock and anger to fear when she realises that he has disappeared, leaving the children on their own - something that is totally out of character. When she starts getting threatening letters and phone calls, she is determined to go to the police ... until Duncan gets in touch and begs her not to.
Maggie finds herself in an impossible position, desperate to protect her children and herself but trying to give her husband the benefit of the doubt. As the trap starts to close in on her, she starts to discover that she doesn't actually know her husband at all and the more she uncovers, the deeper she is plunged into a world of horror, fear and danger.
It's a fast-paced, tense read that had me gripped from beginning to end. The ending had overtones of Stranger Child, once again blurring the lines between victim and criminal.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £7.99
- Paperback: 348 pages
- Publisher: Black Dot Publishing (17 Feb. 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0957652267
- ISBN-13: 978-0957652262
Disclosure : I received a copy of the book in order to write an honest review.
oh really like the sound of this, will have to add it to my goodreads to-read list
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