When Tessa, a damaged but dedicated and brilliant FBI agent with trust problems, is recalled slightly early from her enforced leave, her first assignment is to visit a serial killer, nicknamed the Family Killer. After years in prison, he is about to die from lethal injection having been convicted for the deaths of 34 families, men, women and children. She is somewhat surprised when he tells her that he was responsible for only 32. There was one which had been omitted from his list and three he had not committed.
Concerned that, if he had been truthful about this, there might still be an unrecognised killer on the loose, Tessa struggles to get the cases reopened.
This audiobook is a wonderful symbiosis of author and narrator. Whilst the story itself is good, it is lifted into excellence by Andrew Tell’s performance. The book moves between a third person account of the investigation which evolves and a first person monologue by the killer, talking about his past ‘achievements’, his mind set and future plans. Tell’s reading of this latter is eerily calm and creepy, whilst the other ongoing action is well paced and given the appropriate emotion as each character is given a clear and differentiated voice. The whole is an un-put-downable story of suspense as well as an intriguing glimpse into the minds of two totally different psychopaths as well as that of a completely obsessive cop.
My thanks to the rights holder of The Watson Girl, who gifted me my copy freely, without any expectation of return, via Audiobook Boom. It was very enjoyable, if a little harrowing in parts, not so much from what was written but from the images it conjured up. Anyone who has enjoyed the books by Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs) is sure to also like this book. Recommended.