A review by mg_in_md_
The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood

2.0

In the summer of 2017, I won a mystery box of books from a local NYT best-selling author. Included in that box was an ARC of this book. This was darker and creepier than I normally read, and I found the book unsettling. It would have taken me longer to finish if I hadn't been at a sunny beach at the time, which helped offset the silence-of-the-lambs vibe...slightly. The book is well-written, but I desperately needed a pallet cleanser after I finished it. The chapters alternate between the perspective of the neighbors as a whole and the serial killer; the neighbors don't realize there is a killer in their midst at first and the reader is the only one who realizes how much danger they are in at first. The chapters focusing on the killer were the ones I had the hardest time with because of the more graphic descriptions of the killer's activities; I was grateful for their brevity but still found myself skimming because I was so creeped out. The identity of the killer is revealed to the reader fairly early on, so the reader is left wondering if the neighbors will catch on in time. The writing and psychological angle kept me reading, but I forced myself to keep going and still find myself shivering when I think about it.