Maybe a more appropriate title would be The Serial Killer’s Girl, as that’s what Alison’s former boyfriend is. Presumably. Ten years ago her boyfriend Will was sentenced to a very long prison sentence for the death of five young women attacked near a Dublin canal and left to drown. Alison was told Will confessed and she has spent the last ten years in the Netherlands, trying to forget him and all the horror. But then the body of another young woman is found, killed in a similar manner, and Will tells the police he will only talk to Alison. So she returns to Ireland and it all becomes suddenly very complicated, because Will is now claiming innocence.
This is a ripper read. Fast paced and very intuitive, it sketches enough flesh on each character so we get a feel for who they are. I love Alison’s mother who, when told not to talk to the teeming paparazzi outside, says, “Well I can’t not answer the door, can I? What if it’s one of the neighbours?” And Alison’s best friend is a moody, guilt-tripping nightmare, the likes of which most of us have encountered during our early lives. It is not, however, a perfect novel. We don’t really get a strong sense of who Alison is. And it is odd that her investigations into the identity of the real killer are so more successful than those of the police. And having the real killer go after her ‘just to talk’ doesn’t ring quite true.
But I do love, love, love the final chapter.
