Love Letters to a Serial Killer
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3.9 • 16 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands in this dark and irresistibly compelling debut thriller.
Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters. It’s the perfect outlet for her pent-up frustration and rage. The exercise empowers her, and even feels healthy at first.
Until William writes back.
Hannah’s interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends other true-crime junkies like herself. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss.
Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Coryell's impressive mystery debut chronicles a young woman's budding obsession with an accused killer. After Hannah's quest for a promotion at her Minneapolis nonprofit job stalls and her boyfriend ghosts her, she finds solace and kinship in an online true crime forum focused on identifying the culprit who murdered four women near Atlanta. When handsome young lawyer William Thompson is arrested and charged with the crimes, Hannah begins writing angry letters to him while he awaits trial behind bars. When William unexpectedly responds, their communication turns flirtatious. Before long, Hannah agrees to be his girlfriend, and becomes so consumed by their exchanges that she's fired from her job. She decides to go to Atlanta to watch William's trial, bonding with fellow "serial killer groupies" in the process. When another body is found during the trial in the same ravine where the other women were discovered, William is swiftly acquitted, and Hannah moves in with him, gradually growing accustomed to his moneyed lifestyle. All the while, however, she's nagged by doubts about her new beau's acquittal, and begins looking for incriminating clues. Coryell expertly renders her protagonist's uneasy perch between love and suspicion, keeping readers as in the dark as Hannah is about William's true nature until the very end. This is un-put-downable.
Customer Reviews
Had potential
It started off great as a concept but it started to feel sloppy and cheesy midway through as if the author didn’t know where the story was progressing in advance. As someone from the TC I would’ve appreciated some input of local landmarks