Blog Tour Review; The Killer You Know- S R Masters

Page Count 400

Publication date May 2019/ Publisher Sphere, Little Brown

Good Reads link

Synopsis:

I’ll murder three strangers. And you’ll know it was me. That way we’ll all be connected. Always.
When Will jokes about becoming a serial killer, his friends just laugh it off. But Adeline can’t help but feel there’s something more sinister lurking behind his words.
Fifteen years later, Adeline returns to Blythe for a reunion of the old gang – except Will doesn’t show up. Reminiscing about old times, they look up the details of his supposed murder spree. But the mood soon changes when they discover two recent deaths that match.
As the group attempt to track Will down, they realise that he is playing a sinister game that harks back to one they used to play as kids. Only this time there are lives at stake…

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Review:

I settled myself in to read this on a rare sunny Bank Holiday in April, which worked out brilliantly as half of the story is set during summer. Needless to say I didn’t move from my position in the garden til I’d finished! I love it when a book has a split timeline. For The Killer You Know Masters uses first person as Adeline narrates the current events in 2015 and a past tense third person narrative to cut to flashbacks of the gangs childhood summers from 1997 to 1998.
Nostalgia features heavily in this book and I easily found some of my own between the pages of a time gone by. The writing is on point with Masters use of vocabulary and pop culture during the earlier timeline.
The story flows along nicely, beginning with a reunion of five friends and their shocking discovery that their childhood friend is a serial killer.
Adeline reminds me of myself at her age, her style, music taste and attitude were at times a startling reflection of my own angsty teen years.
Will is so well written, I immediately disliked him, he feels dirty and grungy. At one point, Adeline describes him as ‘milk about to sour’ and that fit perfectly.
Steve’s idea of ‘The Dedication’, essentially a scavenger hunt of sorts, sounded great fun. Exactly the kind of game my era may have thought up to entertain themselves in a small town back in the days before the internet. Probably not with stakes quite so high of course!
I did find it odd that the main characters constantly question if Will might murder one of them as his third victim, yet the sub on the book literally says ‘I’ll murder three strangers’.
At 25% in I made an initial guess at the ending, I can’t help but do this whenever I’m reading suspense. Whilst I was correct on my first guess it was only by fluke! Masters weaves an intricate tale of secrets and lies making my predictions bounce wildly back and forth. I found myself suspecting every single character more than once. I definitely recommend!
Is Will who they think he is? Are any of them?
And what happened to Mr Strachan?
Read The Killer You Know and find out!

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Author: Roxanne Michelle

Dramatic, curly-haired wannabe writer from a nowhere town in Somerset. Stop-starter of all projects great and small. Here to talk books, film, mental health and lifestyle. View all posts by Roxanne Michelle