A Killer in the Family
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A woman uploads her DNA online, searching for her father—but the man who contacts her is Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens. From the acclaimed author of Little Sister, this endlessly twisty crime novel asks: What might a family do to protect or expose a serial killer in its midst?
When the police found the first body, left on a bonfire in the forest, they worried it had the hallmarks of a serial killer.
Now, as they find the second, they know for sure.
Panic about the “Bonfire Killer” quickly spreads through the sedate suburban area of Southampton. Women are urged not to travel alone at night, and constant vigilance is encouraged among the local residents. But single mom Aisling Cooley has a lot to distract her: two beloved teenage sons and a quest to find her long-lost father, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a teenager.
After much debate, she decides to upload her DNA to an ancestry website. When she gets a match she is filled with an anxious excitement that her questions about her father’s disappearance from her life might finally be answered.
But to her horror, it’s not her father who’s found her. It’s a detective.
And they say her DNA is a close match for the Bonfire Killer. . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ancestry searches can bring families together, or reveal long-buried secrets, as Irish single mother Aisling Cooley learns all too well in the riveting latest from Lodge (Little Sister). Aisling hasn't seen her father, Dara Cooley, since he disappeared more than 30 years ago, leaving behind a note for her and her mother ("I love you deeply, but I can't keep living this duplicitous life"). As her two sons approach adolescence, Aisling wants them to know their family history—and maybe even their grandfather, if he's still alive—so she registers with an ancestry site. Her profile catches the attention of Det. Chief Insp. Jonah Sheens in sleepy Southampton, England, as Aisling's DNA provides a genetic match suggesting a close familial relationship to the so-called "Bonfire Killer," who's been affixing local victims to pyres and setting them on fire. Police attempt to track down Dara and begin questioning Aisling's sons as suspects, forcing her into a moral crisis: if one of her loved ones really is responsible, does she want them caught? Heartfelt family drama and thundering suspense elevate the ripped-from-the-headlines plot. This continues Lodge's winning streak.
